And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the

forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need
that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on
our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a
high and beautiful wave. . . .
– Hunter S. Thompson,
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

An adventure for Geist: the Sin-Eaters using the Storytelling Adventure System
Written by Christopher Lee Simmons Developed by Eddy Webb
Edited by Genevieve Podleski Layout by Craig S Grant Storytelling Adventure system
Art: Joel Biske, Coz Koniotis, Justin Norman, Richard Pellegrino,
Matt Smith, John Wigley Scenes Mental OOOOO XP Level

10 Physical OOOOO
Social OOOOO
0-34
White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
2075 West Park Place
Blvd Suite G
Stone Mountain, GA 30087
And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the
forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need
that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on
our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a
high and beautiful wave. . . .
– Hunter S. Thompson,
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

An adventure for Geist: the Sin-Eaters using the Storytelling Adventure System
Written by Christopher Lee Simmons Developed by Eddy Webb
Edited by Genevieve Podleski Layout by Craig S Grant Storytelling Adventure system
Art: Joel Biske, Coz Koniotis, Justin Norman, Richard Pellegrino, XP Level
Scenes Mental OOOOO
10 0-34
Matt Smith, John Wigley
Physical OOOOO
Social OOOOO

White Wolf Publishing, Inc. © 2009 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and one printed copy which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire and World of Darkness are registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. Vampire the
Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created, Changeling the Lost, Hunter the Vigil, Geist the Sin-Eaters, Storytelling System and Parlor Games are trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP hf. CCP North America Inc. is a wholly owned
2075 West Park Place subsidiary of CCP hf. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content.
Blvd Suite G Reader discretion is advised.

Stone Mountain, GA 30087 Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com


Sin-Eaters know that their strange existence is a complicated one. They stand at
the crossroads between life and death and endure all the complications of both.
But there are others, desperate for something to believe in, who believe that a Sin-
Eater’s bond with her geist is a blessed state of unification and a triumph over
the limitations of the human form.
These souls make up the brethren of the Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit.
They have been told that their path lies not in life or death, but in a divine state
somewhere in between. Those who have only experienced one life cannot achieve
true enlightenment. The sacred symbiosis of spirit and flesh must be achieved to
take the next step. Sin-Eaters are their saints, their bodhisattvas. The brethren
are told that they must step through the black gate to reach their potential. They
are told that this is humanity’s next step – humanity’s destiny.
They are misled.
I ntroduction
Through the Ebon Gate is a Storytelling Adventure System story for
Geist: the Sin-Eaters. It’s essentially a kit to running this story for your
troupe, which means only you, as the Storyteller, should read it. Like a
kit, Through the Ebon Gate contains all the parts to build a story. The
tools you use to build it are the World of Darkness Rulebook and Geist:
the Sin-Eaters, as well as the usual pencils, paper and dice. When you get
your troupe together, you’ll use these parts and tools to build a story, but
how you put everything together is up to you. It depends on what you’re
trying to do, whether it’s a stand-alone scenario designed for an evening
or two of entertainment or a story in an ongoing Geist chronicle. The
only right way is whatever ends up being fun for you and your troupe.
Treatment
Through the Ebon Gate opens at a carnival gathering. Sin-Eaters mingle
and carouse, make deals, stoke rivalries and build bonds between krewes.
In the midst of the festivities, a passenger train derails, flung off the rails
by an explosion in the engine. The cars slide into the gathering, loos-
ing chaos and death on the Sin-Eaters’ celebration of life. As the krewe
investigates, they find a strange inverted sigil that means “shattering” in
a vulgar corruption of the Old Tongue.
The train’s destruction was caused by a member of the Black Gate cult
who died on the train, trying to become a Sin-Eater and impress those in
attendance at the carnival. Mateo, the suicide bomber, is distraught over
his failure and wracked with guilt over what he’s done. He was misled.
As the krewe begins to search for the rest of the cult, they run across
Marci, another member of the church who has been deftly manipulated
into killing herself to find Mateo, whom she loves. She’s wearing an
Through the Ebon Gate
extremely unstable vest of explosives, putting herself, the krewe, and innocent
bystanders at risk. After the krewe deals with her, whether they save her or not,
they approach the church’s meeting place, an antique bookstore in a strip mall
storefront. Agents of the Lost Minister, the shade who is using the Seekers for
his own ends, ambush the characters along the way.
Once there, the leader of the cult, Uriah Long, tries to explain the cult’s beliefs.
The characters have to convince him to take them to see the Minister, which
he does by divining the nearest Avernian Gate. The gate he leads the characters
to requires them to board the spirit of the train that crashed in the beginning,
leading them onto a train ride into the underworld, where they are attacked by
a swarm of the minister’s guardians before they finally get to confront the Lost
Minister in a chapel made of bone and iron.
Theme: A Shattered Reflection
Sin-Eaters didn’t ask to become what they are. The Bound had no way of knowing
what lay ahead when Death’s cold hand brushed them. The Event was, in nearly
every case, unintentional. Geists are not summoned. And yet, the brethren of the
Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit dream of becoming essentially the same
thing. They even try, in their own warped way, to help others become like the
Bound. Worse, they worship Sin-Eaters because of their symbiotic relationship,
their “divine” transcendence over life and death. The horrific acts they commit
are done for what they consider to be the right reasons, but they don’t really un-
derstand the essence of being a Sin-Eater. So why do they act as such a temptation
for Sin-Eaters? Worship, adoration and admiration are hard things to shake off.
More than one of the Bound has found herself surrounded by sycophants who
expect great things from their unwitting leader. Remember, though, nothing is
more dangerous than a disillusioned follower.
About the Storytelling Adventure System
If this is your first Storytelling Adventure System (SAS) product, you’ve chosen
a fine place to start. To keep this story kit lean and focused, though, we
haven’t included a lot of the core premises and Storyteller suggestions that
are at the heart of the SAS. Whether you’re a new Storyteller or an old hand,
be sure to read the free SAS Guide, found at the SAS website:
www.white-wolf.com/sas
Here are some of the features available in Through the Ebon Gate:
1
• Interactive links. Clicking on anything in blue will take you directly to the
section referenced, or to an appropriate character sheet or prop. It may
also take you to an external website that could be useful.
• Scenes. Clicking on a scene name in the scene flowchart or the page
number in the scene card will take you to the full write-up of the scene.
• Bookmarks. This PDF is fully bookmarked, so you can jump to major
sections at any time when the file is open.
Mood: Thriller
The ghostly world of Geist is a mix of many moods. Through the Ebon
Gate is designed to be a thriller. The characters are trying to follow a trail
of death back to its source, a cult of misled humans who worship ghosts
and see Sin-Eaters as the spiritual culmination of mankind’s divine poten-
tial. Over the course of the story, the krewe will have to negotiate with a
suicidal girl who holds the fate of hundreds of people in her grief-stricken
hands. They’ll have to fight guardians of the Underworld on a train of
the dead, and they’ll confront a maddened ghost in his inner sanctum,
a twisted and shifting chapel of bones. All the while, the mood should
remain tense and urgent. The clock is ticking, and there’s no telling what
will happen or who these deluded and desperate people will kill next.
A Chapter in Your Chronicle
Through the Ebon Gate is perfectly suited as a chapter in an ongoing
chronicle. Existing inter-krewe relationships can be augmented or trans-
formed, depending on the characters’ actions throughout this story. The
Black Gate cultists can be set up here as recurring foils for your troupe’s
characters, or they can be a small group that is cleaned up and never heard
from again, depending on your needs. For that matter, depending on
how your troupe handles the story, Uriah Long might himself become a
Sin-Eater. If he escapes, whether it be by becoming Bound, sheer luck, or
mercy on the part of the troupe, he could become a dangerous and possibly
powerful long-term foe or an erstwhile ally seeking redemption.
A Story By Itself
Conversely, Through the Ebon Gate can easily work as a one-shot. By
starting in medias res, with the characters already together and at the
carnival, you neatly sidestep the awkward “origin of the krewe” portion
of the story. The carnival itself is a good chance for the players to slip
into the skin of their characters before the action starts moving. When
the local, active cultists are defeated and the characters have won, you
can fade to the closing credits with a clean ending.
B
ackstory and Set-up
The Old Laws may forbid congress between the living and the dead, but
that does not mean it doesn’t happen with frightening regularity. Shades
intrude upon the living to pass on dire warnings, to protect their loved
ones, to execute vicious and convoluted plans of vengeance upon those
who have wronged them or simply to alleviate boredom.
Through the Ebon Gate
Sin-Eaters are popular among the dead because they have the potential to act
as agents among the living. To these ghosts, who either don’t have the skills to
pierce the veil or exist in fear of the Kerberoi, Sin-Eaters are a kind of grey-market
beacon of hope, a weird and wonderful loophole. Among the other ghosts,
those who have forsaken the archaic laws of the Underworld in favor of directly
possessing or otherwise communicating with the living, Sin-Eaters are generally
more of a nuisance. They step in where they aren’t wanted and interfere with
vengeful plots and mischief alike.
Among the living, Sin-Eaters are largely unknown. There are those whose lives
have been touched by a Sin-Eater – the widow who received a final message from
her husband via an enigmatic medium, the grateful homeowner who is no longer
haunted by vicious poltergeists, or a curious cop who knows she saw a perp die,
only to see him alive and well weeks later. Most of the time, these incidents are
isolated and quickly forgotten, swept under the carpet or just ignored. Sometimes
though, there’s a brush with the underworld – just enough to sweep the cobwebs
from her eyes. Watching a Sin-Eater at work or simply being haunted by a ghost can
leave someone forever changed in subtle, insidious ways. It is not enough to attract
a geist when the time comes, but the knowledge that something lies on the other
side — that the world is bigger than the box modern society tries to fit it into — is
enough to nudge someone onto the path.
And always, when someone is lost and alone in an unknown place, someone
else is waiting to prey upon them. Shades who whisper sweet and opportunistic
lies, ghosts who build cults of willing vessels and agents from the broken detritus
of humanity.
The Black Gate
Nobody in the cult calls it the Black Gate. Followers are “Seekers” of the Glorious
Church of the Unified Spirit. The Black Gate is a symbol to them, the doorway
we pass through when we step from this life into the next. Once the Gate is
opened, the brethren of the church believe that the soul is diminished by its
transformation into the spiritual realm. One spirit, one soul, is not capable of
returning to physical existence. To return, once you have crossed the threshold
of the Black Gate, one must find equilibrium with another spirit, unifying and
forming a stronger whole from the two parts. Once the spirits have melded and
the person has returned, he is enhanced, augmented, better than he once was.
This is the next step of human existence, the Seekers teach.
In a way, this portion of the religion reflects the Orphic traditions. Orpheans
revered the mythical Orpheus, who travelled into the underworld and returned
to write a series of hymns teaching humans how to overcome the travails of the
2
dead and transcend the underworld. Devotees carved these instructions onto
golden leaves, which they had buried with them, to remind their forgetful spirits
of the loopholes and rules they could exploit in the afterlife. The Seekers of the
Unified Spirit may have similarities to the Orphic Circle, and may even trace
their roots to a radical splinter sect of the Orphean path, but they are no longer
ideologically related.

A Seeker believes that he is at a spiritual dead end as long as there
is only one soul inhabiting his body. To move on, to move forward, he
must die and find his literal soul mate. Seekers often begin by opening
themselves up to possession, allowing shades to take control. To some,
this takes on an addictive quality. The abdication of responsibility is lib-
erating, and they have an excuse for their lack of control. After a while,
though, the temporary “bond” they create with the possessing spirit
isn’t enough. Suicide among the inner circles of the church is not only
common; it’s expected. But suicide is a selfish act. To move on and leave
so many others trapped in this life is just wrong. Many members of the
church choose to help others along to the next path, those who would be
too frightened to do so themselves. So many Seekers try to take as many
of the unenlightened along with them as they can. It’s the only way to
show them, to make them believe.
Once they have been initiated as Seekers, members are taught about the
Bound as if they are the ultimate expression of what they may become. To
them, a Sin-Eater is a nearly perfect expression of their goals: a seamless,
symbiotic relationship between a ghost and a physical host. Many members
spend their lives trying to become Sin-Eaters. Most of them are missing
a few key ingredients, however. They are not mediums or psychics, nor
are they infused by deathly energy. They just don’t have what it takes to
attract a geist. It’s not their fault, of course: most Sin-Eaters don’t even
know how they attracted their partner.
Through the Ebon Gate
But that doesn’t stop the cultists of the Black Gate from trying to transform
themselves by bargaining with ghosts, giving themselves up for possession and
worse, or (for those with the most dangerous kind of incomplete knowledge)
even trying to orchestrate elaborate near-death experiences to attract a ghost at
the critical moment. Worse, their belief system is such that they often try to help
others free themselves from their limited mortal state at the same time, with or
without their cooperation. A Black Gate cultist may cause a large pile-up on the
freeway. Another may gather his friends or family and “free” them, one by one,
before killing himself. Another cultist may hide a bomb in the bag under his
chair in a mall food court, blowing himself and everyone near him into oblivion.
Each of them leaves a sigil, reversed as in Tarot symbolism, burned into a piece
of paper. The symbol means “shattering” in the Old Tongue, and is usually ac-
companied by a rambling note filled with death imagery.
There’s something darkly tempting about the idea that the Seekers worship
Sin-Eaters. It’s an ego trip to know that someone thinks you’re special, and all
too easy to fall into the trap of letting it go to your head. But when atrocities are
done in your name – to please you – how do you extricate yourself? The sorts of
people who advance into the upper echelons of the Black Gate are not the type
to take it lightly when their “angel” isn’t having fun anymore. A Sin-Eater may be
the object of their adoration, but that can quickly turn into a prison (or worse)
when the Sin-Eater doesn’t live up to the cult’s expectations. When normal people
who ignore the existence of ghosts and ignorantly prefer to live are reviled, how
much worse is the Sin-Eater who values life over death and squanders the gifts
they’ve been given by the “Shining Ones?”
Portraying the Seekers
There’s a difficult line here. We’re talking about domestic terrorists and, what’s
more, we’re talking about them as if they’re flawed but ultimately misled and
pathetic souls. This adventure does not exist to glorify or apologize for the
actions of the few to hurt and drive fear into the hearts of the many.
Mainstream media has a tendency to make our villains shallow. We’re not
comfortable seeing ourselves in the bad guys. But this is the World of
Darkness, and here we’re allowed to look deeper, to find the squirming human
soul at the heart of darkness. If you absolutely cannot stomach the idea of
portraying the brethren of the Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit as normal
people who have made a mistake, feel free to portray them as unrepentant
murderers, or submerge their personalities and choices beneath a malicious
3
possessing shade. The Seekers have a habit of allowing ghosts to possess
them, similar to the vodoun cheval. It’s always possible that one of the Lost
Minister’s agents is literally driving Mateo or Marci to murder.
Nobody’s going to tell you you’re doing it wrong. The ultimate goal here is
for you and your friends to have a good time for a few nights.
T
he Cast
Mateo Ortiz, the Train Bomber
Quotes: “I was supposed to become like you!”
“No, this can’t be right. Why did I fail?”
“I didn’t hurt them, I gave them a chance.”
Virtue: Justice. Mateo believes that we all reap our just rewards.
Vice: Sloth. Mateo tends to wait for things to come to him.
Background: Mateo has never known where he belonged. A talented
athlete, he loved playing soccer, but lacked the drive and determination
to turn pro. A handsome man, he was too shy and socially awkward to
approach anyone he was attracted to. He worked one dead-end job at a
sporting goods store and another at a gas station near his apartment.
Mateo watched his life become a mediocre, tepid thing. He spent all his
time working, just barely making ends meet. He had his own apartment,
but he worked so much that he only was only really there when he was
asleep.
Then, the insomnia came. He couldn’t sleep, no matter what he tried.
He tried pills, roots and homeopathic remedies – nothing worked. Every
time he closed his eyes, he saw her standing there. The hag haunted him
Through the Ebon Gate
for months. Her breath was like blood sloshing over rocks. Her cruel and wrinkled
lips dripped with black, cancerous discharge. Mateo knew she wasn’t a dream or
a hallucination. Eventually he moved, but he still thought of her.
Then he met Marci, a girl who led him to the Glorious Church of the Unified
Spirit. She introduced him to Uriah and the others, and Mateo finally found
others who would listen and believe his story of the hag. In time, Mateo moved
up through the ranks. Uriah told him about Sin-Eaters as the Lost Minister had
told him, and eventually he was trusted with liberating the souls on the 815-pas-
senger train by order of the Minister himself.
Description: In life, Mateo was a handsome young man, with tightly curled
black hair and a soccer player’s physique. In death, the force of the explosion
that killed him twists his features. Gouges and burns have turned Mateo’s face
into a map of failed intent.
Storytelling Hints: You are in shock. Everything was supposed to change
– you had a sense of purpose for the first time in your life, and yet you failed.
It doesn’t even occur to you that you might have been manipulated, or that the
church might have the wrong answers. You failed the church. You are at fault.
Now you torture yourself and wonder how things might have gone wrong. You’re
not worthy of unification, and you’re definitely not worthy to speak to the player
characters or other Sin-Eaters.
Marci Palmer
Quotes: “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“I’ll find him. I’ll bring him back.”
“I won’t look back.”
Virtue: Hope. Though she has none currently, she prefers to see the light of
hope in the world.
Vice: Envy. Marci has always secretly wished that she was more like the
normal girls.
Background: Marci grew up in a pretty standard household: She lives with
a stay-at-home mom, older sister and younger brother, both of whom got more
attention from her mother than she did. Her father, though, taught political sci-
ence at the local university, and doted on his middle child. She spent a lot of her
formative years prowling the stacks at the university and listening to the college
rock that she heard on the quad while her peers were shopping and obsessing
over boy bands. When she actually got to college herself, she majored in English
and worked as a barista in the campus coffee shop.
She was a grad student teaching Composition 101 in a classroom a floor
above her father’s when he had his heart attack. After his funeral, she bottled
4
up, ignoring her family and becoming defensively snarky, afraid of getting close
to someone else and losing them, too. She began spending her free time during
the day at the university in her father’s old office. The room, even stripped of his
pictures and books, felt right to her in a way that her mother’s house didn’t. She
felt like he was there for her, even though he was gone. Other members of the
faculty didn’t have the heart to kick her out, so she began to decorate the vacant

office with photos of her father and reminders of their relationship, and
his office became hers. One afternoon, she felt his hand on her head, an
echo of his affection. She kept going back, hoping to feel it again, and
even began to sleep there sometimes.
Then she met Uriah, and he made her a believer. She listened to his
stories, and tried to reach her father’s ghost. After a time, she brought
Mateo into the church. The two of them spent a lot of time together, each
of them carrying a torch for the other but both too shy to say anything.
And now, she’s just looking for a way to tell him how she felt.
Description: Marci’s a cute girl, in that nerdy college girl way. She has
a round face, framed by dark hair cut into a bob. She’s the kind of girl
who wears a pair of thick-framed glasses for the look, even though she
has perfectly serviceable contacts. She tends to wear clothes that don’t
match in a quirky way, and ironic t-shirts with the logos of forgotten (or
hideous) 80s or indie bands.
Storytelling Hints: You’re a sarcastically funny girl at the best of times.
When the characters meet you, though, you’re lost in the depths of a vast
grief. There is no hope or solace except doing what the Lost Minister has
promised you if you carry out his wishes. You just have to do this one
thing, and you can pass through the Black Gate and get your message to
the two people who mean anything to you. You give lip service to the idea
of coming back as a Sin-Eater (though you call them “Shining Ones,” like
the rest of the Seekers), but really, when it comes down to it, you don’t
care as long as you’re with Mateo and your father.
Through the Ebon Gate
Uriah Long, the Conduit
Quotes: “You have been touched by divinity. Why would you keep others from
having the same chance?”
“I’m only trying to help them find what they are looking for.”
“I’m afraid you don’t understand.”
Virtue: Faith. Uriah believes that this life and the next are connected by faith
and belief.
Vice: Lust. Uriah has always lusted after forbidden knowledge.
Background: Uriah Long was born in the backwoods of southern Florida,
where the Everglades touch the sinuous lines of the highway known as Alligator
Alley. There, his batty, broken great-aunt Mary Constance raised him in a rotten,
cluttered shotgun house after his parents died. He was home-schooled by the
strange woman and taught her warped version of the Gospel.
Deep in the swamps, she showed him the old trees, and the remnants of
things forgotten and dying. She told him that they were weak because heathens
no longer worshipped them. Mary whispered this in front of the spirits of the
swamp, disgusted by them. Uriah whispered back, awed. You must recognize in
Uriah’s Deathly Abilities
Gateseeker (••• Mediumist Merit)
Prerequisites: Death Sight
Similar to Dowsing (see p. 38 of Second Sight), a Gateseeker is a medium
who, by concentrating, may be drawn to an Avernian Gate. Once it is found,
the character does not necessarily have any idea how to actually open the
gate unless they have previously researched it or have been told how to do
so by a Sin-Eater or ghost. The procedure is similar to dowsing. The medium
must concentrate and enter a trance, wherein they wander blindly, drawn to
the Gate. Some mediums use props, such as a dowsing rod made of bone,
while others simply roll their eyes back in their head and lose themselves
in the trance.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult
Action: Extended. The Storyteller determines the number of successes
required, based on how well-hidden or distant the Avernian Gate is. A Gate
5
hidden in a cemetery might require three successes, while one hidden in
the boiler room of an old mall might require 10 or more. Each roll represents
30 minutes of seeking.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The medium is led on a wild goose chase far from his
desired goal. He also loses all accumulated successes.
 Through the Ebon Gate
Failure: The current seeking attempt is unsuccessful, but more rolls these things the dangers you will face in life, she said. But Uriah saw only the
may be made. beauty of the ephemeral shades.
Success: When the player has accumulated the number of successes When Mary wasn’t watching, Uriah returned to the deep places, wading
required, the attempt succeeds. through the stinking water past cypress knees taller than he was, looking for the
spirits she had shown him. He found a lightning-struck tree, its bark charred and
Exceptional Success: The medium might gain some insight into how blackened, its center hollowed out by animals and erosion. The boy waded in,
to open the Avernian Gate. looking up at the dead tree as he walked through the natural arch of its corpse.
Death Sight (•••• Mediumist Merit) Once through, he saw the swamp for what it was, a sodden graveyard. He had
(This merit is identical to the one found on p. 44 of Second Sight) passed through the Black Gate, into the Underworld. The spirits slipped from
one world to the next, forgotten by their descendants, giving up.
Effect: Your medium can see dead people. The psychic may perceive Uriah called them back. He begged them to stay, to tell him their stories, and
and communicate with any ghost she encounters. The power allows they did. The months went by and the sheltered boy learned more from the shades
only perception of and communication with ghosts in Twilight — than he did from his great-aunt. Mary watched him suspiciously, and followed him
ghosts tied to the material world and not to any otherworldly spirit as he snuck back to the dead tree and crossed over through the charred Avernian
world. The power affords no ability to contact spirits from the Shadow Gate. There she waited, gripping a cypress branch in her shaking hands, afraid
Realm that have entered the material world and that exist in Twilight. to pass through the tree as he had. Mary Constance knew that no good came
This Merit does not permit the psychic to aid ghosts in manifesting of treading where the dead passed their pale existences. When Uriah emerged,
in the physical world. Most ghosts instinctively realize when a mortal she confronted him there, on the edge of the Underworld. In the shadow of
the Black Gate, the shadow of the boy’s sin, she began to beat the boy with the
can perceive them, and psychics who possess this power are often
branch, trying to purge him of the taint of the shades.
inundated by requests from desperate beings seeking help to resolve
their earthly affairs.
Cost: None to sense the presence of ghosts. One Willpower to initiate
communication with them.
Dice Pool: Wits + Composure
Action: Reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Medium is unable to use this Merit for the rest
of the scene. Alternately, she may suffer horrific visions of some hellish
underworld, inflicting a -2 penalty on all actions for the remainder of
the scene.
Failure: The attempt to activate Death Sight is unsuccessful.
Success: Your character can perceive and communicate with any
ghost in her vicinity for the remainder of the scene. Such ghosts
remain intangible to her, however.
Exceptional Success: The medium may gain a +2 bonus on all rolls
made in dealing with ghosts during the scene.

6
Option [Permanent Death Sight]: The medium’s ability to see the
dead is always active. The stress of constantly being surrounded
by spectral beings inflicts a mild derangement such as Depression, The ghosts watched as she knocked him down. They saw the brilliant red of
Phobia, Irrationality or Avoidance. The player must still roll Wits + Uriah’s blood bloom in the murky water, and one of them acted. The humid
Composure in order to communicate with ghosts, but with this option, air went dry as the shade slipped into Uriah’s body, possessing him. When he
such rolls gain a +3 bonus.
 Through the Ebon Gate
stood, Mary knew that it wasn’t her nephew looking out at her. The
ghost tore the branch from Mary’s grasp and turned her punishment
back upon her.
When Uriah awakened, he was alone. He searched for Mary, but never
found her. Eventually, he left the swamp. Even now, he doesn’t know that
his hands murdered his great-aunt. Now he wanders, teaching those he
can about the only real friends he’s ever had. Recently, he was brought
under the wing of the Lost Minister, deep in the local Underworld. The
Minister uses the earnest young man for his own ends, turning Uriah’s
faith and message into a twisted thing.
Description: Uriah doesn’t have the traits one expects from a religious
leader. He does not have perfect hair, a gleaming smile or practiced grace.
He does not have the pulsing, apocalyptic passion of a fire and brimstone
preacher on the pulpit. Uriah is neither a kindly old man nor a broad-
shouldered could-be politician. He is a young, frail thing, unassuming
except for the haunted glimmer in his eyes.
Storytelling Hints: You don’t not win your converts by shouting or
coercing. You don’t speak with an oiled tongue. The quiet, solemn intent
of your voice has its own power. Your presence is a paradoxical thing. Your
very lack of charisma and polish imparts a kind of strength and appeal
that cannot be manufactured or packaged. Indeed, in a room of your
followers, their deference towards you is often the only sign that you are
anything more than simply another Seeker.
Your psyche is a bit broken. You believe in your heart of hearts that
death is not simply the next step of existence, but that there comes a time
where we cannot grow any further without sloughing our skin and passing
through death’s door. At the same time, you do not feel that you have
reached that tipping point, and you do not judge when your followers
are ready to make the step. When a Seeker decides that it is her time, she the rich and decadent. The hidden face of the upper class called to the minister.
is taken to the Lost Minister (or at least, one of his ghostly agents), who He could not turn his back on those who so obviously needed the influence and
“foretells” her death and teaches her how it will happen. presence of a man of God.

The Lost Minister

Quotes: “This is not hell, but I can show you the way.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. Perhaps you should reconsider?”
“I follow a path that you cannot see with your charlatan’s eyes.”
Virtue: Faith. The Lost Minister has utter faith that even this dark road
is the path God wants him on.
Vice: Greed. The Minister has an appreciation for the finer things.
Temptation was everywhere, sliding past in silk and velvet, brushing against
him in dim hallways, but still he maintained his discipline. He saved the lustful
from sin, and he did not partake. The minister turned women away from their
gluttony. He counseled men against vanity. And yet, he took the donations of
the rich in order to build a larger monument to God. He secretly smiled at his
own benevolence and persuasiveness. The church was never large enough. The
trappings were never fine enough. Though he knew the path, the minister slowly,
subtly, became lost. In time, he became as corrupt, in his way, as the lost sheep
he tried to herd to salvation. There was no specific moment when he could point

Background: He wasn’t always this way. Once, though he can hardly
remember it, the Lost Minister was a living, breathing human being. He
doesn’t remember his name, and even if he could recall where he was
buried, the tombstone has long since worn smooth. When he lived, this
bitter ghost was actual clergy. He ministered to the sick and the poor, but
he was happiest—indeed, he felt closest to God—when he ministered to
7
to as the moment his soul was lost, though he is sure that, were he a worthier
man, he would have seen it coming.
Description: The Lost Minister cannot be mistaken for human. Taken feature
by feature, there is nothing about him that is blatantly wrong, but somehow the
sum of his appearance is utterly inhuman. He has the form of a short, stout
man, but his demeanor gives the impression of vast height. He looks down

on even the tallest sinner, and everyone is guilty of sin. His fingers are
incongruously long and graceful, and he often steeples them in front
of his chin when he is deep in thought – or when he wishes to appear
so. When he manifests, a chill flows from him like frigid vestments,
leaving a cold and clammy trail where he walks.
Storytelling Hints: Do not simply respond. Think things through,
regardless of how much time that takes. In fact, you like to use silence to
unnerve and unbalance your enemies and allies alike. Everything you do is
calculated to elicit a reaction from those around you. Never allow anyone
to walk away unmarked. Hatred, love, devotion — you can find a use for
any strong feeling — weaker, mediocre emotion is anathema to you.
The name “the Lost Minister” is not how your minions refer to you.
They call you “father” or “sir” when they address you. “The minister” is
acceptable. Only enemies and those who don’t know better use the full
sobriquet. Lost implies that you do not know your way, and that is a very
dangerous assumption to make.
Seeker of the Black Gate
Quotes: “We will become Shining Ones.”
“The Gate will open soon and death and life will become one!”
“Death is not the end.”
Virtue: Faith. The Seekers find solace in their belief.
Vice: Envy. The Seekers covet the feeling of being whole.
Background: Most Seekers come from a lower to middle class back-
ground. They have enough time to think about the inevitability of death
Through the Ebon Gate
and what comes after and they’re desperate enough for something to believe in
that they fall into a strange fringe cult based on the words of a nearly homeless
visionary. Rich folks in the same position tend to go for something a little grander
and even more out there.
Like Sin-Eaters, every Seeker has a connection to death. Theirs is more tenu-
ous, though — almost never enough to actually attract a geist when they die (or
nearly do). It’s a matter of degrees. They don’t tend to have any inbuilt affinity
for death. They are the haunted, the survivors of crashes that killed the rest of
their families. They have seen glimpses of the other side, but only as if they were
looking at an eclipse through a camera obscura. Somewhere between first-hand
experience and second-hand knowledge drifts the Seeker.
Description: The Seekers in Uriah’s current flock run the gamut from the
elderly, unassuming owner of the bookstore they meet in, to the stocky used car
salesman who runs cover for Uriah among strangers. They don’t tend to stand
out as eccentric or weird; they’re just like everyone else.
Storytelling Hints: Seekers tend to be a little on the quiet side. They go un-
noticed by the living, and can’t talk to the dead. By definition, a Seeker tends
to be overzealous when discussing her religious beliefs. The Unified Spirit is a
strange amalgam of old religion and modern meme. It spreads virally, from one
person to another, without an obvious central authority. Uriah treats the other
Seekers as equals in nearly every way. They defer to him because he’s the only one
who can open the gateway and communicate directly with the Lost Minister, but
the church doesn’t need either of them. The Seekers have internalized their own
interpretations of Uriah’s teachings mixed with the tainted message of the Lost
Minister, and they are perfectly capable of building the cult on their own now.
The Lost Minister’s Guardians
Quotes: (stares at you)
Virtue: Fortitude. Only the strongest are worthy.
Vice: Wrath. Sinners must be punished.
Background: The guardians come from all sorts of backgrounds. Each of them
somehow came under the sway of the Lost Minister. Like a mob boss in prison,
the minister uses shades trapped in the Underworld with him to get messages up
to the ghosts on the “outside” who do his bidding in the living world.
Description: There’s no such thing as an average guardian. Each one is unique,
befitting the way he died. One might stand on awkward, broken legs that belie
an inhuman strength, while another grins at his prey, his tongue flexing through
a slit in his throat. Yet another may stand in a cloud of greasy black smoke lit
from within by fires stoked in his torso. Ghosts don’t wear uniforms unless they
8
died in them.
Storytelling Hints: You’re a true believer in your own way. The minister has
pounded his message into your head and you’ve become exactly what he’s sculpted
you into: a tool of his brand of salvation. You have no fear of Sin-Eaters, or rather,
you have more fear of the Lost Minister.

S
cenes
Scenes are the main building blocks for your story. All the material thus
far sets the foundation and provides the mortar, but you and your troupe
will decide how to put these blocks together.
Plotting
The foundation of Through the Ebon Gate is like a funnel. The farther
the krewe goes, the harder it is for them to extricate themselves from the
situation. Once they start digging, there’s really no going back without
being haunted by the horrible acts they could have prevented. That
means that the story is set out in a fairly linear fashion, with one scene
necessarily pushing the characters toward the next, in large part due to
the style of the thrillers this SAS is inspired by. This isn’t written as a
sedate drama that the characters can walk in and out of as it suits them,
though you can tweak the timeline a bit if you want to give the characters
more room to breathe or if you want to change the tone of the story a
more oppressive feel.
Integrating this story into your chronicle’s setting could introduce a
number of variables and ways for you to control the pacing or create a
previously existing reason for the characters to get involved. You could
begin slipping in hints about the Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit
a few sessions (or arcs) before you run this SAS. You could introduce
certain members of the church as recurring background characters to give
the characters a more visceral connection to the story. Marci is the ideal
candidate for this role; she works at a coffee shop as a barista, which puts
her in a prime position to have a shallow but consistent relationship with
characters from almost every background. Her big scene will have to be
handled from a slightly different tack if the characters are already familiar
with her, but it might even have more weight if they saw her before she
became so distraught and desperate.
If you’d rather slow down the pacing, Marci could be kept in the dark
for longer before she finds out that it was Mateo who blew up the train,
giving the characters more time to investigate leads on the street. You
Through the Ebon Gate
can always create more “conversion attempts” using other members of the cult
to lengthen the number of steps between Mateo and the Lost Minister, if you
don’t mind the enormous body count that would entail. Part of the strength of
the Storytelling Adventure System is that scenes and other story elements can be
moved around and revised based on your needs. If you need to get things mov-
ing more quickly, move up the scene with Marci at the overpass. To slow things
down, simply throw more obstacles at the players.
Ultimately, it’s about what your players have fun with. If they enjoy hours meet-
ing various Storyteller characters in a variety of locations to deal with the events
of this story, feel free to let them do so. If, however, they’re sick of doing dry
research or having long conversations about strange belief systems, toss in a few
more of the Lost Minister’s inhuman goons to raise the physical stakes a bit.
Tweaking the Story: Rival Krewes
One way to expand the urgency of the story and introduce a personal
element into the equation is to use an existing rivalry with another krewe. If
the troupe’s krewe has an ongoing turf dispute or just a friendly competition
with another krewe, using it to push the players’ characters to try harder and
do better is a good way to get players involved. It’s amazing what someone
will do just to piss another person off or to win a bet.
It makes sense that the characters aren’t the only krewe involved in the
investigation. After all, the train wrecked in front of an inter-krewe gathering.
Pretty much every Sin-Eater in the tri-county area was on hand to watch the
bloody beginning of the story. It might be stranger if there wasn’t another
krewe racing the troupe to the finish line.
On the other hand, if the krewe doesn’t have rivals, this might be a good
time to introduce some. The social aspect of Geist is similar in many ways
to modern gang culture. Rival sets create all kinds of drama just by dint of
being rivals. Chasing the same girl, fighting for the same corner, wearing the
wrong colors in someone else’s neighborhood or just running into each other
in the mall can get someone into real trouble. Krewes fly their own colors
and keep their own turf, and even allied groups can have a little competitive
friction that introduces a beneficial continuity to a chronicle.
9
 C haracter R elationsh i p C hart S cene Flowchart
Mateo Ortiz The Carnival

Uriah Long: Salvation. Mentor.
Marci Palmer: Beautiful and brilliant, but needs guidance.
The Lost Minister: Incomprehensible father, unto a god.
The Train

Uriah Long
In the Aftermath
Mateo Ortiz: A nice boy. Tragic.
Marci Palmer: Promising and smart. A guiding light.
The Lost Minister: A font of knowledge and guidance.

The Second Soul Marci’s Sacrifice Turning the Stones

Marci Palmer
Uriah Long: Soothing. Speaker of the truth.
Mateo Ortiz: Awkward and shy, but lovable. Tea with the The Minister
Enemy Says “Hi”
The Lost Minister: A tool to reach Mateo.
Optional Vignette, may
be used any time after
“In the Aftermath” up
until “On the 815.”

The Lost Minister

On the 815

Uriah Long: So eager. So deluded.

Marci Palmer: Irrelevant.
the Lost Minister: Irrelevant. The Lost Minister
 Through the Ebon Gate
The Carnival
city; more precision is always better when trying to create a feeling of authentic-
ity. It’s a good idea to spread some other unrelated rumors too, as red herrings
or even as seeds that will grow into later stories in your chronicle.
• “I’ve been seeing a lot of skinriders down on the strip lately. Craziest part is, I ran
Mental •• Physical – Social ••• one off, right? And the ridden girl yelled at me. What’s that all about?” The Seek-

Overview
The krewe is blowing off steam at a carnival. They gather in a tent away
from the rest of the mortal crowd, a refuge among their own kind.
Unbeknownst to the characters, a cultist of the Black Gate prepares to
sacrifice himself – and everyone else on the train with him – in hopes of
becoming a Sin-Eater himself.
ers who have moved beyond the initiation phase view possession as a kind
of sacrament. Giving a shade the means to feel something is an act of great
charity. Each time a Seeker is possessed, a little part of her hopes that this
time she will bond with the shade and become something better.
• “All the time, man. My sister is a pain in my ass all the time. Last month, she was
hanging with some weird UFO thing, and now she’s always talking about expanding
my consciousness and some preacher she thinks could ‘help’ me.” Members of the
church truly believe that theirs is the right answer. Seeking fulfills them in a

Description
way that nothing else has, and they want to share that fulfillment with their
loved ones.
• “You see that shit at the mall last week? Some lady in the food court poisoned a
You arrive at the carnival early, but the air is already thick with the smell of bunch of customers, then herself! Town’s getting crazy, man. For real.” Many Seek-
sweat and sugared pastries. The crowd is thick, but over the heads of the people ers work at a smaller, less splashy scale than Mateo, the man on the train.
you see the roiling, flashing lights of the tilt-a-whirl, hurling its passengers around Some are driven to kill their families, while others take their employees or
as they scream in mock fear. The rough map on your invitations lead you past the customers along.
tilt-a-whirl and the gravitron, through the press of people and the gaudy sideshow
paintings, and towards a nondescript tent.
The tent itself is surrounded by the strange sigils of the Old Tongue, en-
suring that the mundane masses ignore the gathering within. As you push
aside the flap, a riot of new smells overtakes the midway’s familiar patina.
Incense, spice and the sticky-sweet smell of sugar skulls wafts out in a cloud
before you pull the flap closed behind you and the outside carnival fades
away, in favor of the altogether different one within. Krewes from three
counties are gathered here to strengthen ties, reconnect with their friends
and cut loose among the only people who truly understand them.
Makeshift games and scattered tables fill up much of the space inside
the tent. At one table, two Sin-Eaters haggle over a guitar pick hung from
a chewed and blackened strip of leather. At another, an oracle stares into
space while her companion waits patiently. In one corner of the room, a
mariachi plays, and a young woman hands out sugar skulls to the small
audience gathered in front of him.
The characters are free to wander the gathering of the krewes, and you
may want to improvise some conversations with members of other krewes.
This scene is perfect for introducing or updating plot threads in an ongoing
chronicle. If you have a krewe that already has a rivalry with the troupe’s

11
characters, having them around could ignite some sparks and make for a
dynamic scene even before the train goes off the track in ”The Train.”

Rumors
You can use this time to spread a few rumors about the Glorious Church
of the Unified Spirit, too. Feel free to tweak things to fit your chronicle’s

Storyteller Goals
This scene is all about setting the mood and getting the players into
character. If this were a television show, this scene and the next would
be the hook before the credits. This scene can take as much or as little
time as you need. If this is the first time the players have played these
characters, this scene can be stretched out to give the characters a chance
to interact and introduce themselves around to the other krewes in your
chronicle’s city. Keep the characters involved in the carnival only as long
as they are enjoying themselves, though. When things start to drag, move
on to the next scene.
Character Goals
The characters’ only goal is to do their part establishing the scene. If this is
the first time the troupe has played these characters, give them some time
to get into their roles and work out a bit of the inter-krewe dynamic before
pushing forward, whether to apply pressure to the krewe by introducing
them to a rival krewe or moving straight on to the next scene.
Actions
Playing Games
There are a number of games available during the celebrations. Playing
games has no real effect on the adventure, but it’s a way to introduce play-
ers to the mechanics if this is their first time playing, as well as a method
Through the Ebon Gate
to get the troupe into the mood for gaming. Few things focus a troupe better
than rolling the dice. You can use the systems below to model any number of
carnival-style games: ring toss, balloon darts, magnet fishing and so on.
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Athletics
Action: Extended (target of 10). The character has as many rolls as he has
darts, balls, rings, etc.
Hindrances: Standing at the line (-1); bad eyesight (-2); drunk (-2).
Help: None. Carnival games are designed to increase your chances of losing,
not winning.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character misses entirely, losing all of the successes he
has accrued.
Failure: The character fails to make any progress toward winning the game.
Success: The character makes progress toward winning the game.
Exceptional Success: The character makes extraordinary progress toward win-
ning the game.
Consequences
This scene is largely flavor, intended to give the characters a chance to live in the
moment, so most of the consequences of this scene will be player-introduced or
at the very least highly character-centric. It might be a good idea to keep a piece
of scratch paper handy to write down snippets of character dialogue or action be-
tween the players’ characters and Storyteller characters from other krewes that you
might like to revisit later, particularly if this is part of an ongoing chronicle.
When the characters are ready to leave the party, move on to “The Train.”
12

The Train
Mental ••• Physical ••• Social •
Overview
The characters leave the midway just in time to witness a tragic disaster.
A train derails and collides with the carnival, killing and injuring a large
number of innocents.
Description
As you move back into the open air, you see that the carnival has become more
crowded. You can just barely hear a country band playing on a nearby stage
over the voices of the crowd, and a passing passenger train is almost drowned
out entirely by the cacophony. Another krewe of Sin-Eaters comes out of the tent
laughing and jostling one another when the carnival erupts. You hear a massive
explosion followed by the tortured shriek of metal on metal. You watch as the
car just behind the passenger train’s engine erupts into a ball of flame. The train
bucks and rolls like a frightened animal, the cars tumbling off the tracks and
sliding through the crowd.
Directly towards you.
Storyteller Goals
The explosion and ensuing destruction should come as a shock to the
players. It should come out of left field. One moment the characters are
enjoying themselves, the next they’re trying to get out of the way of tons
of twisted metal and fire. Because you know what’s coming, it’s easy to
get excited and, in anticipation of the event, telegraph that something big
is about to happen. If you feel like the players are picking up that signal
A Word About Mementos
If characters are callous and quick-thinking enough, it’s possible that
certain items—a crushed and abandoned kewpie doll, or a bloody
keychain taken from the corpse of a victim—might work well as the
foundation for a new Memento. Characters should be careful collecting
such trophies, though, as people get oddly sensitive about vultures
picking at the dead at the best of times. When a person is confronted
with this much destruction, he feels helpless, and that helpless fury
is difficult to handle. A scavenger is a much smaller thing than the
mass of death around him. It’s something that fits into his worldview,
something he knows how to deal with.
Through the Ebon Gate
despite your best efforts to the contrary, your best bet is misdirection. Intentionally
draw their attention to a drunken fight on the midway or an obnoxious barker
trying to get one of the characters to play ring toss (Hey, mister! Five’ll get ya ten
rings! We’re giving away a Nintendo! You look like a man with an arm! Five’ll get
ya ten!) Of course, if one of the characters has the Danger Sense Merit (World
of Darkness Rulebook, p. 108) or some other method of precognition, the train
itself can become a bleak harbinger of doom. Even then, you can leave things
vague enough that the character might interpret the train as symbolic or possibly
the carrier, rather than the instrument of doom itself.
Character Goals
This scene’s pretty straightforward from the point of view of the characters:
survive. There’s very little time for conscious thought, and indecision will really
only result in serious injuries or death. Even if the Sin-Eater argues over every
decision he makes with his geist, this is one time when both entities should be
in complete agreement – get out of the way!
Actions
A Disappointed Girl
When the train tumbles into the carnival, chaos ensues. The crowds explode into
panic, with one common element: Left, right, direction doesn’t matter – they
all run away from the train. Everyone that is, except one lone girl. During the
chaos, ask the characters to roll to notice this action, and read the following to
them, should they succeed:
As people scramble for safety, the crowd surges away from the train like a living
thing. Only one person stands apart. A dark-haired girl watches the scene with
a mixture of awe and horror on her face. It might be shock, but something tells
you it’s more. Somehow, she seems… expectant.
Dice Pool: Wits + Composure
Action: Instant
Hindrances: Currently running for your life (-2)
Help: Actively scanning the crowds (+1)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Sin-Eater doesn’t see Marci, but he also finds himself
disoriented by the chaos. He loses five seconds worth of time from the attempt
to run from the train’s tumbling wreckage (see below).
13
Failure: The character doesn’t see Marci in the panic.
Success: The Sin-Eater notices Marci, though he probably couldn’t pick her
out of a lineup. If he sees her again, he’ll have to roll Intelligence + Composure
to recognize her.
Exceptional Success: The character sees Marci and takes enough notice of the
details that he would recognize her again later without a roll.

Saving an Innocent
Over the course of the destruction, you can inject more drama into the
situation by putting someone (a character’s loved one or a random and
helpless innocent) in harm’s way, pushing the Sin-Eater’s buttons and
forcing them to confront whether they have a heroic nature, or if their
own previous close call with death causes them to seize up.
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Athletics. The character must achieve a number
of successes equal to the number of yards she is away from the victim she
is trying to save.
Action: Instant.
Hindrances: Slippery or inappropriate shoes, such as high heels (-2)
Help: Running shoes or hiking boots (+1)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character falls in the chaos, twisting her ankle and
suffering 1 point of bashing damage.
Failure: The character is caught in the flood of running people and
makes no progress towards the fallen victim.
Success: The character makes progress towards the victim she is trying
to save.
Exceptional Success: The character makes extraordinary progress
towards the character she is trying to save.
RUN!
When a giant train car is skidding along the pavement in your general
direction, getting out of its way is usually the immediate choice.
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Athletics. The character must achieve 5 successes
to get free of the train’s path of destruction.
Through the Ebon Gate
Action: Extended. Each roll takes 5 seconds. The character has 20 seconds to
get fully out of the way.
Hindrances: Slippery or inappropriate shoes, such as high heels (-2)
Help: Running shoes or hiking boots (+1)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character gets hit by flying debris from the train, and
suffers 3 points of lethal damage.
Failure: The character gets clipped by a piece of wreckage or flying debris,
taking 3 bashing damage.
Success: The character makes progress toward getting the hell out of the way
of the train.
Exceptional Success: The character handily avoids the train.
Consequences
This scene can have consequences that linger long after this story is done. An
attack that is essentially domestic terrorism can completely change the way that
security is handled on the local mass transit systems. At least for the near term,
there will be an increase in “security theatre,” enhanced measures that will make
life more difficult for many of the supernatural denizens of the city, sometimes
even more so than for the mortal population: x-ray machines, metal detectors,
searches, guards who pull anyone aside who looks remotely suspicious or eccen-
tric. There are any number of ways you can make life more interesting for the
troupe’s characters in the aftermath of Mateo’s suicide.
The train’s wreckage leaves behind a ragged trail of wounded and questions.
Whether the krewe chooses to help the wounded and investigate the wreckage
or they decide to run away, go to “In the Aftermath.”
14

In
the
A ftermath
Mental ••• Physical •• Social •••
Overview
The characters pick through the wreckage of the train, giving them a
chance to investigate the cause of the “accident,” assist in triage of the
surviving victims or put those without hope to rest, depending on the
characters’ inclination.
Description
The characters may experience this scene in two ways: Immediately after
the accident or later that evening, after the urgency of the emergency
has been resolved.
Immediately Following
Amid the wreckage, you can hear the moans and cries of the injured and the lost.
People wander the fairground in shock, looking for loved ones they were standing with
only moments before. The wreckage of the train itself is strewn across the carnival.
The chorus of moans underlies everything, a counterpoint to the crackling of fire and
the bumps and pops of cooling metal. A woman lies on the ground nearby, bleeding
from a head wound. Her hands clench and unclench around the fabric of her blouse,
and she stares into space, repeating the name “John” over and over again.
The carnival’s first aid staff is trying to help the survivors, but they’re
overwhelmed, and it’s going to take time for paramedics to arrive.
Any characters with medical training have their work cut out for them.
Between the passengers of the train and the carnival-goers, hundreds of
people were injured or killed. A Reaper might take it upon himself to
wander the wreckage as an “angel of mercy,” helping those who won’t
survive find a peaceful end.
The train is scattered across the fairground. The only car still on the tracks is
the engine. Next to the door, there is a strangely familiar mark spray-painted in
messy graffiti.
Around you, the first ghosts begin to fade into being. Some of them cry out, try-
ing to answer the calls of the survivors, while others begin to wander as if nothing
has happened. Near the train, one shade screams, his face ruptured and twisted
by the explosion.
The ghost with the tattered face is what remains of Mateo, the Seeker
who detonated the bomb. He is distraught – this isn’t the effect he hoped
Through the Ebon Gate
for. He truly believed he was liberating the people he killed. Keep in mind that
Mateo (and the rest of the human members of the Black Gate cult) are not know-
ingly evil. They are desperate and their actions have consequences that are, in the
final balance, evil, but they aren’t sitting around twirling their moustaches and
cackling madly.
If the krewe decides to investigate Mateo, he is horrified at what he’s done,
but he doesn’t want his failure to reflect on the rest of the church. To him, this
is a personal failing.
As you approach, the charred shade looks up at you, and you can tell he recognizes you
for what you are. He falls to his knees.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry,” he says. “So sorry! I crossed through Black Gate, but I wasn’t
worthy. I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
L ater That Evening
In the blue light of the moon, the train seems to glow a dull silver, where the metal hasn’t
been blackened or scratched to a flat, matte grey. Every fair leaves a wasteland when
the gathered masses leave; a barren plain of concrete dotted with the flimsy structures of
attractions stripped bare and left lonely without the mystique of the carnival. Tonight,
though, a different sort of magic holds sway. Only the living desert the fairgrounds. The lost
and wandering dead still mill about, searching for loved ones who survived or mindlessly
repeating the same carnival actions over and over again. One ghost throws phantom rings
at bottles hidden behind a tarpaulin for the night. Another wanders by holding hands
with someone who isn’t there, pointing to the shadowy bulk of the Ferris wheel that blots
out the stars.
Ahead, by the ruined hulk of the second car, the epicenter of the explosion, you see
a charred shade sitting on a pile of debris with his face in his hands. As you approach,
he looks up. His face is torn and burnt by the force of the explosion that rent the train
asunder. You can tell he recognizes you for what you are. He scrambles off the debris and
falls to his knees.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry,” he says. “So sorry! I crossed through Black Gate, but I wasn’t
worthy. I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
Storyteller Goals
This scene is all about giving the preliminary clues to the players. The biggest one,
of course, is the inverted Old Tongue sigil for “shattering,” the symbol used by
the inner circle of the Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit, spray-painted on
the side of the half-destroyed engine. Of course, Mateo can provide some clues,
but he won’t mention the church itself by name.
If the characters avoided the immediate aftermath of the wreck, they miss out
15
on immediate clues. Keeping the characters involved when they are intentionally
keeping themselves on the periphery is a difficult task. In this case, your goal is
to encourage the krewe to get involved despite their apathy and avoidance. Keep
in mind that character avoidance may not be the same thing as player disinterest.
If the character is a convict on the run, the wreckage is the last place he wants
to be. Likewise if a character is presumed dead, she might have difficulties when

giving a statement or worse, when her grieving mother sees her on televi-
sion and starts looking for her. You need to give such characters a feasible
way around, an avenue into the story.
This is exactly the kind of thing that sets the world aflame. Cell phone
footage is making its way onto video sites, while people are sending live
updates to social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. The krewe
will be awash in the media’s tragic theater, humanity’s need to vicariously
experience the darker things. This is, after all, literally a train wreck.
If the players are disinterested, you have a larger problem, but not an
insurmountable one. One method of increasing the player’s investment is
to make the consequences of the wreckage more personal for his character.
Maybe a friend or a contact (or an ally’s friend or loved one) was on the
train, and it becomes apparent in the aftermath.
Character Goals
Depending on the characters’ archetypes, the aftermath of a large disaster
can elicit a variety of responses. A Reaper may choose to send souls along,
while a Pilgrim might comfort the survivors, encouraging them to bid the
dead farewell and let go.
Actions
Questioning Mateo
Mateo will cooperate to a certain extent. He doesn’t know as much as he
thinks he does, and he’s not willing to betray his friends in the church
– he’s afraid that the Sin-Eaters will punish them for his failure. However,
he does repeat certain doctrines of the church as rote. He is nervous
Mateo’s Answers
Why did you do it? “I was trying to touch the divine. To be like you!
I hoped to call upon a spirit to join with me and help me return from
the darkened lands, perfected.”
What about the others on the train? “I was trying to help them to
pass through too! ‘We must all cross through the Black Gate and
return if we are to be whole.’”
Where did you get the idea to become like us? “The minister told us.
He sends word from the other side, trying to help us find our way.”
Who is “the minister?” “That’s the only name we – I – know.”
Where you trying to merge with a specific ghost? “No… Is that
where I went wrong? Oh, my God, I’m such a failure!”
Are there others like you? “I can’t tell you. I’m sorry, they shouldn’t
pay for my mistake.”
Through the Ebon Gate
and awed by the Sin-Eaters, so he falls back on quotes from the scripture Uriah
created with the help of the Lost Minister. Mateo will answer any question as
honestly as he can unless he feels it would lead the Sin-Eaters to Uriah and the
church. Then he’ll clam up and politely refuse. If pressed, he will allow himself
to be destroyed – he’d prefer it right now, actually – before he’ll talk. Keep in
mind that there are hundreds of innocent people around, so this interrogation
has to be done discreetly.
Mateo saw Marci at the site, either afterward before she ran away, or later, when
she came back hoping for his return. Either way, he’s worried about her and, if
the Sin-Eaters are at all diplomatic, he might eventually become desperate enough
to tell the characters about Marci and that he feels she’s in danger. He will not
tell them that she’s a member of the church, but he’s afraid she’s going to hurt
herself, and his faith in the Black Gate is a bit shaken. He’ll send the characters
to her office at the university — he knows she goes there when she’s depressed.
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion vs. Mateo’s Finesse + Resistance (dice
pool 3)
Action: Instant and contested
Hindrances: None.
Help: The characters approach Mateo in a calming manner (+1).
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: If the player of the speaker rolls a dramatic failure, the char-
acters alienate Mateo and send him into a panicked spiral; he won’t interact
with them any further. If the Storyteller rolls a dramatic failure, Mateo not only
answers, but he volunteers answers to questions that weren’t asked.
Failure: Mateo remains too preoccupied with his own failure to be of any use.
Success: Mateo is willing to answer a number of the character’s questions equal
to the successes rolled.
Exceptional Success: If the player of the speaker rolls an exceptional success,
Mateo is not only willing to answer the character’s questions, he volunteers
answers to questions the characters didn’t ask. He still won’t betray the Seekers,
however. If the Storyteller rolls an exceptional success, Mateo won’t interact with
them any further.
Performing Triage
Characters with medical training are welcomed by the first aid crews and im-
mediately put to work. Even characters without medical training can volunteer
as runners or just help make those who cannot be saved more comfortable in
their last moments. Simply holding the hand of a frightened and dying casualty
can be invaluable in a situation such as this.
16
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine
Action: Extended. Each roll represents one minute of work. The character
must achieve a number of successes equal to the number of Health points you
determine each patient to have lost due to the destruction, in order to stabilize
that patient before disaster relief arrives and sets up a field station or transfers
the patient to the hospital.

Hindrances: Lack of tools (-2), distraction from noise (-1)
Help: Field kit (+1)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character’s efforts make the patient’s condition
worse instead of better. The subject is moved prematurely or incorrectly,
or their wounds are treated improperly. The patient loses one Health
point of bashing damage and all the character’s accumulated successes are
lost. He must start from scratch if he’s to help the patient. If the subject
is bleeding to death, an extra wound turns from lethal to aggravated, in
addition to the one lost for the minute that’s wasted.
Failure: The character makes no progress in alleviating the patient’s
injuries. If the subject is bleeding to death, a wound turns from lethal to
aggravated over the course of the wasted minute.
Success: The character makes progress in alleviating the patient’s in-
juries. Until you acquire the total number of successes required to stop
a patient from bleeding to death, one more of his wounds turns from
lethal to aggravated per minute.
Exceptional Success: The character makes significant progress toward
alleviating the patient’s injuries.
Recognizing the Sigil
The sigil spray painted on the side of the train has been battered by
the explosion and is partially covered by the soot and grime or scraped
away by the concrete. It is still recognizable by those who are well versed
in the Old Tongue, with a little creativity. The Glorious Church of the
Unified Spirit uses the symbol for “shattering,” but inverted, to denote
a unification of that which was once disparate. The Old Tongue does
have a word for “unification,” or “to unify,” but this symbol has been
adopted to indicate that it is not the natural order of things, and because
the normal word does not bear the connotations that the Seekers have
placed upon their own symbolism.
Through the Ebon Gate
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult
Action: Instant
Hindrances: The sigil is partially obscured by soot and damage (-1).
Help: The character attempting to decipher the obscured and inverted symbol
is fluent in the Old Tongue (+2).
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character misinterprets the sigil, providing the krewe
with false information.
Failure: The character fails to recognize the sigil.
Success: The character recognizes the sigil as the Old Tongue symbol for “shat-
tering,” but upside down.
Exceptional Success: The character recognizes the symbol and makes the con-
nection that if it is inverted, the symbol might be intended to signify unification
or repair.
Consequences
Depending on the character’s actions in this scene, a number of wrinkles can be
introduced. If any of the characters performed triage on the wounded survivors,
they may be singled out for media attention for their heroism, which, while sat-
isfying, may make their day-to-day life a little difficult for a while and also hinder
the krewe’s investigation into Mateo’s associates. If a character decided to act as
an “angel of mercy” and he was seen, the witness may tell the police or take it
upon herself to enact her own form of justice.
Given the information they gathered, the characters may choose to do a little
asking around in “Turning the Stones,” they may follow Mateo’s desperate plea
and visit Marci’s office in “The Second Soul,” or they may go their own way,
picking up the thread again in “Marci’s Sacrifice.” If the characters didn’t ques-
tion Mateo, or did but didn’t completely alienate him, his spirit is anchored to
the fairgrounds now, haunting the location of his failure.
17

Tu rning the
Stones
Mental ••• Physical — Social •••
Overview
The characters put their skills and contacts to work, looking for informa-
tion based on what they already know. This is less a scene than it is a good
old-fashioned “research montage.”
Description
You got what you could from the wreck site. The streets are buzzing with rumors;
people worry at every scrap of news, and every source is full to the brim. Every
channel is playing regular updates, with the same footage of the smoking wreck as
seen by helicopter. Twitter and the other social media sites are slammed with eye-
witness accounts and digital rubbernecks, living vicariously at a safe, disconnected
distance. The media is awash in conjecture, but there must be more to know…
Spreading the Net (Police)
Your friend in the department is hard to reach. He finally answers his cell phone.
“What?” he says. Even in that one word, you can hear the tension in his voice.
He’s had better days.
Spreading the Net (Journalists)
You can hear the shouting of crews and the chaos of the clean-up behind his voice.
Over the phone it becomes a wall of noise.
“Tell me you’ve got something on this.”
Researching Online
It’s a flood. “815crash” is a trending topic on Twitter, and digging through the
mess is almost impossible. Other sites are just as bad. This is going to take a while
to comb through.
Storyteller Goals
This scene is actually a series of short vignettes you can pick and
choose from, intersperse where needed, or drop in the players’ laps
if they’re too lost. Information should be personalized based on the
characters’ relationship with their contacts. When preparing for the
Through the Ebon Gate
game, you might want to create a few scene cards of your own using either
index cards or the free SAS support kit, with responses customized for each
character in the krewe.
Character Goals
It’s all about the characters. Their talents and networks are the fuel that drives
this scene.
Actions
Hitting Up Contacts
The characters may have contacts in all manner of venues that could be helpful.
Religious contacts may be able to provide the characters with a bit of insight into
the Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit. One of them might even have a copy
of the flyer for the church (see p. 36). Journalism and Police contacts can provide a
bit more information into the wreck than the public has access to, though possibly
not as much as the characters were able to glean from interrogating Mateo.
Journalism And Police Contacts
• “The train derailed there on purpose. Definitely a bomb. You didn’t hear this from me,
but it was homemade stuff. Chemical.” The train was definitely bombed using a
homemade chemical explosive. The police are running down suppliers of the
materials used in its construction, but that will take time. The media still hasn’t
released the news that it was a bombing.
• “Ain’t heard nothin’ from no one. Nobody but nutjobs, at any rate.” Nobody credible
has taken credit for the attack. Any number of crackpots have already called
to confess their involvement, but there’s nothing concrete.
• “We’ve got a suspect, or at least what’s left of one. Found a few bits in the car that
went boom.” The police have recovered parts of Mateo, but there’s not enough
for quick identification. Mateo didn’t have a criminal record, so without a
lead, they don’t have his DNA to test against.
Ghostly Contacts
• “There’s a lot of exorcist shit going on lately. People running around with spooks on
their backs, like the Old Laws just don’t apply.” The Seekers who have moved
beyond simple initiation tend to open themselves up to possession, allowing
ghosts to take control of their bodies in a kind of transhumanist abdication
of responsibility.
18
• “Been seeing some spooks I’m not used to hanging around by that old bookstore…
Sorry, don’t remember the name of it. I might be able to find out, if you could do
me a favor…” Dealing with ghosts is never a one-way affair. They always want
something in return.
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion (or Socialize, depending on the Con-

tact)
Action: Instant
Hindrances: Frequent and recent requests (-1 to -2), obscure informa-
tion (-2 to -3)
Help: Gift (+1), small bribe (+1), an outstanding favor (+1 to +3)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The contact doesn’t tell the character the full extent of
what he knows, or provides misleading information. Perhaps he’s holding
out for money or favors, or simply makes an honest mistake.
Failure: The contact doesn’t have the information the character needs.
Success: The contact is able to provide some information that’s helpful
to the character.
Exceptional Success: The contact is able to provide a wealth of in-
formation to the character, providing answers to questions that aren’t
even asked.
Researching Online
We live in an increasingly voyeuristic, privacy-challenged society. The
absolute best way to get information on a rapidly evolving current event
is through online channels. Blogs and news sites update faster than the
newspapers and television stations can produce content, vet it and get it
edited and laid out for publication or present it live. Tools like Twitter
are changing the way we communicate and interface with one another.
The democratization of media extends even to the Black Gate cultists.
Sin-Eaters looking online for information may run across the flyer for
the church (see p. 36), but when they strike paydirt, it is in the form of a
new video on YouTube.
On one of the video sites, you find an entry that was just uploaded and, from
the looks of it, just recorded. In it, a thin girl with a round face stares into the
camera as rush hour traffic rushes down the interstate behind her.
“This is my graveyard,” she says. “These are the people I have chosen to
Through the Ebon Gate
save.”
She turns and pans the camera (maybe it’s a cell phone?) over the interstate traffic.
The landmarks around the overpass she’s standing on look familiar, and you see painted
on the rail the same sigil that adorned the engine of the train.
“I miss Mateo. Maybe I can bring him back through the Black Gate.”
The video ends.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Computer
Action: Extended (4 successes; each roll represents 30 minutes of research)
Hindrances: Unusual topic (-1), limited library or proxied Internet connec-
tion (-2)
Help: High-speed Internet (+1)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character obtains flawed or inaccurate information that
leads him to draw incorrect conclusions about the subject.
Failure: The character makes no progress in locating the information he’s
after.
Success: The character makes progress in his search for information.
Exceptional Success: The character is well on his way to discovering the
information he’s after. If the roll provides enough successes to push the total
well above the amount necessary to complete the task (by five or more), he gains
additional information pertinent to his research, providing greater detail and
insight into the subject.
Consequences
Depending on the information the characters uncover, they may be able to move
directly to “Tea With the Enemy,” using the address on the flyer. Even if they
don’t find Marci’s video on YouTube, you might want them to happen upon
her suicide attempt in “Marci’s Sacrifice” to string things out a bit and get a little
more mileage out of the story.
19

The S econd
S oul
Mental •• Physical – Social –
Overview
The characters visit Marci’s office.
Description
The door says “Palmer,” and stands just slightly ajar. The office is cluttered, every
flat surface stacked with papers and books, except for the obviously well-used futon.
The desk has a bulky old monitor on it, the beige gone yellow with age. Photos of a
round-faced girl with an older man are hung on the walls and stand on the shelves.
Taped to the monitor is a picture of Mateo alive, his arm over Marci’s shoulder.
Storyteller Goals
Marci’s plight is more likely to elicit a sympathetic reaction if the characters
see her as a person, rather than just another Storyteller character. This
scene, as well as “Marci’s Sacrifice,” work best if you evoke Marci’s life
beyond her involvement in this story. Given that she is as much a victim
of the Lost Minister as anyone else, creating sympathy for her can be
beneficial to the endgame of the story: the fight with the Lost Minister. If
you are using the Seekers as directly evil, she can still be saved from their
clutches. If you are portraying them as deluded and lost, she is a symbol
for the entire church. Either way, her grief and desperation can be used
to create a sense of outrage in the krewe, giving them fire and determina-
tion that can carry them through the rest of the story.
Character Goals
The characters are looking for clues to where she might be as well as
information about the Seekers.
Through the Ebon Gate
Actions
Searching the Office
There are a few clues that may be found in the office. A flyer for the Church
(see p. 36) is in a desk drawer, Google Maps is still open on her web browser
(pin-pointing the intersection she’s been sent to), and her email has a notifica-
tion from YouTube that her farewell video (see p. 21) has been posted. There’s
also an email from Mateo, telling her to stay away from the carnival the day of
the accident. Over the course of searching her office, the krewe may learn other
things about their quarry: a note from her father, perhaps, or her schedule,
showing the composition and creative writing classes she teaches. On her shelf
are a few copies of The Second Soul, a small-press science fiction novel she wrote
wherein the protagonist joins his soul with another to create a bipartite being
who is stronger and better than he was alone.
Dice Pool: Wits + Investigation
Action: Extended (5 successes required to find everything; one roll represents
10 minutes of activity)
Hindrances: Attempting to be subtle (-2)
Help: Unrestricted access to the scene (late, guards are neutralized; +2)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Sin-Eater draws incorrect conclusions from the informa-
tion she gathers.
Failure: The character uncovers no useful information.
Success: The Sin-Eater uncovers useful information, but is that all there is to learn?
Exceptional Success: The character gains a wealth of useful information from
a few minutes’ careful study.
Consequences
With the information gathered, the characters have a choice. If they discovered
the map and the video, they can proceed to “Marci’s Sacrifice.” If they discovered
the flyer, they can also choose to move on to “Tea With the Enemy,” leaving Marci
to her fate (although depending on the characters’ Synergy rating, that might lead
to a degeneration roll). If you need to stir things up and slow the krewe down,
you can always ambush them with “The Minister Says ‘Hi.’”
20

M arci’s
Sacrifice
Mental ••• Physical •• Social •••
Overview
Marci plans to sacrifice herself by jumping off of an overpass wearing
a vest of homemade dynamite. She’ll cause a massive pileup and many
deaths, if the krewe can’t stop her.
Description
If the characters discovered Marci’s video online, or discovered her loca-
tion because Mateo sent them to her office, read the following:
Marci is ahead, looking over the rail of the bridge. Below, the main artery of
the interstate flows thick with rush hour traffic. She looks up and sees you. She
shouts and scrambles carelessly up onto the rail, the rubber soles of her shoes slip-
ping on the pitted concrete.
“Stay back,” she shouts, pulling a pistol from the inner pocket of her jacket.
Tears wet her cheeks, but she looks determined to jump. Under her jacket, you see
the edges of what looks like some kind of explosive.
If they just happened upon her suicide attempt, read the following:
Ahead, you see a girl in a bulky jacket looking over the rail of the bridge. Below,
the main artery of the interstate flows thick with rush hour traffic. She reaches
up and begins to pull herself onto the rail, and you see a flash of what looks like
explosives under the hem of her jacket as it rides up. Under her, on the pitted
concrete, you see the same sigil that was on the train.
Marci’s wearing a wrap of explosives that are just about as unstable as
she is right now. One good hit or spark could set the whole thing off.
Mateo didn’t return, and she blames herself. Now she thinks she can be
the one to go into the Underworld and save him. She wants to be his
Orpheus. Uriah doesn’t know that she’s doing this. The Lost Minister
reached out to her through another intermediary almost immediately
after Mateo died, manipulating her in her weakest moment.
If one of the characters tries to nudge her or blatantly control her via
a Manifestation, keep in mind that the explosives are extremely volatile.
Every move Marci makes is subject to a Dexterity + Composure roll. Suc-
cess means she doesn’t go kaboom. For more information on explosives,
see p. 179 in the World of Darkness Rulebook.
Type Blast Area Damage Size Cost
Marci’s explosive jacket 12 6 2 ••••
Through the Ebon Gate
Storyteller Goals
This is a tense situation. She’s packing a lot of firepower for a distraught girl with
a dead boyfriend. Marci’s trying to do the best thing she can think of under the
circumstances, but nobody’s under any impression that she’s thinking straight right
now. The characters are running on a clock. When Marci climbed up onto the
rails, it went from “there’s a girl watching traffic” to “that girl’s about to jump!” and
someone is sure to have called the police from their cell phone as they passed. The
other factor to keep in mind is that, sooner or later, Marci herself is going to jump
or move wrong and set off the unstable explosives she’s strapped to herself.
Your goal here is really to amp up the suspense of the moment. Sin-Eaters have
a number of abilities that allow them to control someone else’s body. Marci’s got
a decent resistance against them, but the danger is really in the explosives. Any
wrong move could turn the overpass into an explosive addition to the news. It’s
even completely possible that she could calm down, agree to help the characters
and still blow herself up trying to crawl off the rail.
Character Goals
The characters have two main goals here: save Marci and however many innocent
lives she would take with her, and find out more about the cult. Calming Marci
down is the best way to accomplish both goals, and the characters have the best
chance of doing that. They can act as intermediaries to allow her to have her
final moment with Mateo. If she survives thanks to the characters, she might
become a useful resource for them in the future if they choose to cultivate her.
Marci could become a solid symbol to remind the characters of the good they
have done after she completes her journey back to stability.
Actions
Assessing the Explosives
Marci’s no explosives expert. The Lost Minister has contacts with a man (the
same man who approached her on his behalf, and the man who gave Mateo his
explosives) who provides his cultists with the proper tools. In this case, he gave
her homemade and extremely volatile dynamite. The specific locations of the
attacks don’t matter to the Lost Minister— he uses the symbol and the location to
make his pawns feel like they are fulfilling a prophecy or some other meaningful
task. Once Marci had the explosives, he didn’t really care where she went off, as
21
long as a lot of people were around.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Crafts or Science
Action: Instant
Hindrances: Marci pulls her jacket closed before the character can get a clear
look (-2)
Help: Character gets a clear look (+1)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character misidentifies the explosives and deter-
mines that they are safe.
Failure: The character can’t identify the explosives.
Success: The character identifies the explosives successfully and recog-
nizes that they are extremely unstable.
Exceptional Success: There is no reward beyond successful recognition
of the danger the characters are in.
Negotiating with Marci
Marci’s an emotional wreck. If the characters try to talk her off the ledge,
they need to find a way to help her find some kind of hope for the future.
One angle they might exploit is their ability to reach Mateo and talk to
him. She regrets never telling him she was in love with him.
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion vs. Composure + Empathy (in
Marci’s case, the pool is 5)
Action: Instant and contested.
Hindrances: The characters are aggressive (-2).
Help: The speaker mentions being able to contact Mateo’s ghost (+1).
Through the Ebon Gate
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Not only do the characters not convince Marci, but they drive
her to jump into traffic below, detonating the dynamite and causing quite a lot
of damage.
Failure: Marci is unconvinced, but does not jump (though she will with the
slightest provocation).
Success: Marci is calmed for the moment. She still stands the chance of slip-
ping or moving wrong and detonating the explosives until they are (carefully)
removed and secured.
Exceptional Success: There is no further reward above and beyond achieving
a regular success.
Consequences
There’s only one thing to really do at this point: it’s time to visit the Glorious
Church of the Unified Spirit. If the characters have been really slamming ahead
and you want to slow them down a bit, you could slip in an ambush with “The
Minister Says ‘Hi’,” or you can move directly ahead to “Tea With the Enemy.”
22

The M inister
Says “H i”
Mental •• Physical ••• Social •
Overview
The characters are ambushed by a group of the Minister’s agents and
forced to fight.
Description
Each player may reflexively roll to see if their character successfully detects
the agents using their Numina. If even one succeeds, read the following,
directing the descriptions of the cramps at the characters who succeeded.
If any character achieves an exceptional success, the agent manifesting is
ahead and to the right.
As you walk, a churning pain twists in your stomach. Somewhere very close
nearby, a shade is manifesting. Before you can investigate, more ghosts appear all
around you. To your left, one opens its wolflike maw, and ectoplasm drips to the
ground in long, green strands. On the right, another stands folded over sticklike
legs. Dark, bloody stains obscure its mouth in a ragged slash. Its talons twitch on
its branchy arms like twigs shaking in the wind.
From ahead, a thick, elephantine giant of a shade lumbers forth from the dark-
ness. His tattered coveralls barely cover mangled and sinewy flesh. His tiny eyes
glitter beneath the squalid folds of his face.
“You should walk away,” he says.
The ghosts attack almost immediately. They’re not really good at
talking, and it’s definitely not what they’re here for. You should think
carefully about where you set the ambush. A location that fits into your
setting and gives the characters a chance to use their powers is best. Keep
in mind that each of the shades’ anchors must be fairly close by. Inven-
tive players will seek them out and use them to destroy or blackmail the
agents. We’re leaving the specifics of the agents’ anchors up to you, so
you can personalize them to your setting and the location you choose for
the ambush. Use as many of the guardians as you think the characters can
handle. One per character is a good rule of thumb, unless the characters
are a particularly combat-weak (or very physical) krewe.
The agents are loyal to the Lost Minister to a fault. They will fight until
they are destroyed, because the consequences of losing or running are
worse than simply ceasing to exist or being banished to the Underworld.
Through the Ebon Gate
There’s very little the characters can do to the shades that will match the horrors
they imagine the Lost Minister inflicting on them.
Storyteller Goals
This is a straight-up slugfest. Your main goal here is to make the combat into
something that evokes drama and illustrates that the Lost Minister knows that
the characters are investigating and he’s not happy about it. Of course, just like
in the movies, these sorts of “warnings” are usually ineffective. From your point
of view, this scene succeeds if the ambush does just enough damage that it
strengthens the characters’ resolve rather than actually frustrating their advance
or driving them off.
Character Goals
Of course, the characters’ goal here is to win the fight, or at least get away. With
a little planning on your part, you can give each character a moment to shine
in the fight, where they get to do something awesome. Perhaps you could set
the ambush in a construction site, so the Sin-Eater with Industrial Boneyard
can use the crane to take one ghost out, while another dives into the mound of
moved earth and pulls up the Grave Dirt Shroud to go toe to toe with the agents’
leader. Keeping track of the krewe’s abilities and planning ways to enable the
characters or counter them is even more important than keeping track of your
own Storyteller characters.
Actions
Most of this scene is combat. The main action the characters can take outside of
combat is the reflexive detection of the lead shade’s manifestation at the begin-
ning of the scene. The guardians know how to work together, and they chose the
location of the ambush for a reason. They’ll choose a location like a construction
yard for their own reasons too. In a fight with the guardians, the environment
is as important as the shades themselves. Rebar and heavy machinery become
weapons in the hands of a poltergeist. Use the rules for improvised weapons on
p. 136 of the World of Darkness rulebook for the items the guardians turn into
killing tools.
Detecting Numina Use
Each Sin-Eater gets a chance to reflexively detect the agents’ use of Numina at
the beginning of the scene. This is their early warning chance to avoid being
23
completely ambushed.
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult + Psyche. You should ask each player to make this
roll when you are ready to move on from this scene.
Action: Instant

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Sin-Eater not only fails to notice the ghost’s use
of Numina, he also automatically fails to detect the next use of Numina
from the same ghost.
Failure: The Sin-Eater doesn’t notice anything unusual.
Success: The Sin-Eater notices the use of Numina.
Exceptional Success: As above, and the Sin-Eater knows exactly where
the sensation originated (ahead and to the right).
Through the Ebon Gate
Consequences
If the characters all survive the fight with the Lost Minister’s agents, there are very
few consequences that reverberate. If any of the shades were banished to the Un-
derworld, using them as the attackers on the train or the guardians in front of the
chapel later will provide a nice sense of consistency to the story, and create a bit of
personal investment on the part of both the characters and the antagonist.
24

Tea With
the Enemy
Mental ••• Physical •• Social •••
Overview
The characters track down the address on the flyer, and discover a small
church in the back of an antique bookstore. One of the Seekers keeps
them from talking to Uriah initially, but they have a chance to talk to
him after a brief run-around.
Description
The address on the flyer is in the middle of a rundown strip mall, under a sign
that says “Harold Charger’s Antique Bookstore and Tea Lounge.” The small
storefront has a display of used antique books in the window. A piece of worn
and faded paper is taped in the lower corner of one window, with the upside-down
“shattering” symbol drawn in faded marker.
A beaten metal bell clatters as you open the door, announcing your presence.
The interior looks less like a store and more like a living room. A pair of couches
face each other with a coffee table in between. Seated at the couches, two twenty-
something girls stop conversing and look at you as if you just walked into their
apartment. An older man sits on a stool behind a counter with a run-down cash
register on it, the only nod to commerce in evidence. A shy looking young man goes
into the back through a moth-eaten green velvet curtain as a more robust man in
shirtsleeves and a tie emerges. He smiles a car salesman’s smile and approaches,
extending his hand.
“Come in, come in! We don’t bite. Is there anything we can help you with?”
If the characters present the flyer or ask about the church, Ed introduces
himself a little more formally.
“Welcome to the Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit. My name is Edmund,
but you can call me Ed.”
If the characters go in civilly, they’ll be welcomed by Ed, who is cov-
ering for Uriah. For his part, Uriah knows what the Sin-Eaters are on
sight, and has decided to essentially screen their call. Depending on how
rough the characters look after their interactions with Marci and the Lost
Minister’s agents, Ed may be a little more suspicious (though he’ll act no
less solicitous) of the characters.
Ed is nobody special. He’s just a Seeker running interference for Uriah,
trying to work out who the krewe is and whether they’re trouble. The
Through the Ebon Gate
church is in a state of paranoid lockdown right now, due to Mateo’s actions.
They don’t know about Marci yet. Ed will be glad to answer questions about the
church, but he specifically avoids the topic of suicide and definitely the kind of
suicide bombing that Mateo (and potentially Marci) committed. The girls on the
couch, Tina and Jessica, are initiate Seekers. They haven’t been drawn into the
inner circle, and don’t know about the church’s stance on suicide.
The old man behind the counter is Harry, the owner of the repurposed book-
store. He donated the back of the shop for the church’s use, but the shop itself
is so often empty that the Seekers spend much of their time lounging around in
the front. Harry doesn’t mind; it makes the shop look more active.
If the characters seem curious, Ed will elaborate a bit on the information in
the flyer (see p. 36).
“It’s simple, really. We’ve all seen little things, stuff we can’t explain. You know, like,
you know you turned that light off, but HEY! It’s on again. Or the rocking chair in your
living room starts to rock for no reason. It’s not a bad thing. I know, I know… It can be
scary. But everything we don’t understand is scary. The first person to see a plane was
terrified.
“I’m talking about ghosts. Sounds silly when you just say it like that, doesn’t it? It’s not
silly, and it’s not a joke. We’re not all sitting here having you on, my friends! We’ve all
seen things, and we all know that the spirits of the dead are trying to reach us, to pass on
their wisdom. We’d like to help you learn from them, too.”
If the characters are blatantly hostile, Uriah escapes out the back, but Jessica
stupidly yells “Uriah, run!” giving the characters a chance to go after him. If
the characters are respectful and diplomatic with Ed, eventually Uriah returns
from the back and introduces himself. He can see the characters for what they
are; it’s part of the gift that makes him different from the other members of the
church.
“Ed, may I have a word with your new friends?” the shy looking young man says from
the curtain. He gestures into the back, inviting you in. “I’ve been waiting to meet you.”
In the back, a collection of dining room chairs is arranged in a configuration roughly
reminiscent of a church or a support group, facing a worn lectern. The young man smiles
softly as you enter the room.
“I’m sorry, you must forgive me. This is very exciting. The Minister has told us so much
about you, but we’ve never actually met someone like you before.” He brushes his limp
blonde hair out of his eyes, “Oh! Sorry, my name is Uriah. I’m a Seeker here. I guess you
could call me the pastor of the church. Would you like some tea?”
If Uriah is convinced, he will take the characters to see the Lost Minister, whom
he assures them will explain everything. But he insists they go “his way,” which
involves his talent at divining the location of Avernian Gates (see p. 27).
“Wherever I go, follow me.” Uriah closes his eyes and prays for a moment, and then
25
stands. Nothing happens for a few moments, but then his eyes roll back in his head, and
be begins to sway and stagger. He leads you down the street, stumbling along oblivious
to the world around him. Time has passed, and it’s dark now. He turns and tries to go
forward, but a gateway stops him. Uriah blinks and looks around. You’re at the train
station. “The gateway lays beyond here.”
Storyteller Goals
This is one of those scenes you can use to push the krewe out of their ele-
ment, creating drama through the awkwardness of the situation. What do
you do when a man identifies himself as the leader of a group of domestic
terrorists and then offers you tea?
If your chronicle leans to the darkly comic, this is a good scene to use
to play up the surrealism of things: powerful and strange characters, their
geists whispering to them and their deathly, otherworldly powers crackling
just below the surface, sitting in cheap folding chairs in a makeshift church
having tea with a man who unwittingly conspired with an ancient, mad
ghost to enable mass murder.
In a more traditional horror-based game, the same elements can lend
an unsettling creepiness if you stretch out the moment and emphasize the
silence of the room, broken only by the tinkling of silverware on china,
and the tick of the grandfather clock. Discomfort can create different
reactions in different people. Where one character might get nervous
and act rashly, another might fight the giggles, while another might try
to turn the tables on Uriah and out-wait and out-stare him.
This is also a good time to actually tempt the characters with the idea of
being worshipped by the Seekers. Uriah is a good person to use to “preach”
the faith to the characters and make it clear that they are considered a
sort of angel by the brethren, but Ed can work almost as well.
Character Goals
The characters are trying to get Uriah to give them the information they
need to stop the killings. How they get it will vary from krewe to krewe.
Uriah is most amenable to a convincing argument. He’s not built for
combat, but the other members of the church will defend him the best
they can while he tries to escape if that’s the route the krewe takes. He’s
not unreasonable; just deluded and a little naïve.
Actions
Convincing Uriah
Uriah is a strange young man with strange convictions. He has unusual
values, but they don’t extend to the indiscriminate murder of hundreds of
Through the Ebon Gate
people. His faith leads him to believe in what the Minister tells him; he venerates
ghosts, and naïvely believes that they are somehow more honest than the throngs
of humanity. However, the krewe are Sin-Eaters, the very thing he’s been taught
to aspire to become. If the krewe presents a compelling argument, Uriah will help
them by leading them to the Lost Minister. If they fail to convince him, they may
try other, more physical methods. Uriah’s not a particularly solid young man, so
the biggest issue the krewe will have in a combat situation will be Ed and, more
importantly, the shotgun Harry keeps under the counter. If there is a fight, Tina
and Jessica disappear, most likely calling the police once they’re safely out.
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion vs. Composure + Empathy (in Uriah’s
case, the pool is 7)
Action: Instant and contested.
Hindrances: The characters are aggressive (-1).
Help: The speaker is a Necromancer or Advocate (+1)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Not only do the characters not convince Uriah, but he refuses
to speak to them any further. He calls for Harry and Ed, if they approach him
any more.
Failure: Uriah doesn’t believe the krewe. He remains faithful to the Lost Minister.
Success: Uriah is willing to listen, but carefully watches the krewe for signs
that they are the ones playing him, not the Lost Minister.
Exceptional Success: Uriah believes the krewe completely, and relaxes his
guard around them.
Consequences
This scene leads to “On the 815.” Either the characters are lead there willingly by
a convinced and helpful Uriah or they beat directions to the chapel out of him.
A slim chance exists that the characters will be able to find the Lost Minister’s
home on their own, but the Underworld is a very strange place, with constantly
shifting geography. Uriah has ties to the minister that essentially acts like a hom-
ing device. His cooperation makes the krewe’s lives much, much easier.
If, for some reason, the krewe chooses combat and attacks Uriah, he will look
for a chance to double cross the characters later, in the Underworld. If they kill
him, he’s largely out of commission for the rest of the story. You may choose
to resurrect him as a Sin-Eater or not, depending on the needs of your future
stories. The climactic scenes assume that he is cooperating with the krewe, so
you’ll need to tweak things slightly if that’s not the case.
26

On 815
the
Mental ••• Physical ••• Social •
Overview
Whether the krewe used force or charm, Uriah shows them the way to
the Lost Minister.
Description
You stand in the deserted station, near the beginnings of a spontaneously accreted
memorial to the lives lost in the wreck Mateo caused. The pictures are organically
stacked and pinned haphazardly, unruly and somehow more beautiful than a
precisely designed tribute would have been. You see the names scribbled on the
bottom of each picture, and you know that this memorial is not complete. It will
continue to expand. Uriah touches each picture in turn, whispering a prayer for
the dead.
The memorial itself doesn’t actually exist as a conduit for the deathly
energy surrounding this horrific incident, so the characters can’t use the
bits and baubles left here to make new Mementos. It’s possible that the
memorial may take on those properties given time, if the players are pa-
tient. It should be said, however, that staking out a memorial in hopes that
it could become fodder for a Memento is less than admirable behavior.
No trains are running this late, but you still feel a thrumming vibration rising
from the platform. Cold green arcs of phantom electricity run along the tracks, and
the hair on your arms stands on end. The blackened, battered engine of the train
from the fairgrounds comes into view and rolls to a slow stop, displaying all the
scars and tears caused by the wreck. The doors open, and blood drizzles over the
edge into the lowered bank below, hissing and boiling as it hits the gravel. Uriah
steps on board, ignoring the pooled blood and looks back.
“This is the best way to reach the chapel. Are you coming?”
Once you climb onboard, you see the shades of many of the passengers, bloody
and crushed, but staring straight ahead through cloudy cataracts. They take no
notice of you. The train shudders and moans as it prepares to leave the station.
The doors hiss and close, and the light of the station dims and fades. The train
lurches into motion, causing the blood pooling on the floor to slosh and gurgle.
The characters can always use Plasm to inject a little coherence into
one of the passengers, but they don’t know where they’re going any more
than the krewe does.
The train enters a tunnel, the noise of its riding the rails beginning to echo like
some kind of hollow metal heartbeat. Outside the scratched and spider-webbed
windows, the walls are changing from the uniform concrete of a manmade tunnel
into roughhewn, almost organic structures, broken up by irregular supports that
Through the Ebon Gate
appear to be enormous rib bones. You have passed into the Underworld. Here and there,
strange creatures scramble along the walls, staring in at you with heads turned the wrong
way on their withered bodies. Too many fingers grasp at the pits and peaks of the wall,
and one jumps free, catching at the side of the train. As the train picks up speed, more
and more of the creatures swarm over the outside, leering in the windows, and heading
for the doors on either end of the car.
The creatures are servants of the Lost Minister, use the stats for the Lost Min-
ister’s Guardians for them. This time though, use more of them. They’re trying
to get into the train, and the characters just have to defend the points of entry.
You can keep throwing guardians at the krewe as long as you’d like. Be careful
not to step over the line from “exciting” to “annoying.”
Storyteller Goals
This is the descent, and there’s no going back now. Like the characters, you’re
devoted to the endgame. Thus far, most of the setting of Through the Ebon Gate
has been mundane, with an overlay of the ghostly world Sin-Eaters experience.
Now we’re leaving reality behind, moving into the surreal landscape of the dead.
The visual vocabulary of the Underworld is influenced by the cultures prevalent
in your setting. The Underworld of Costa Rica is not the same as that of Chicago
or Paris. If your game is set in New York City, for example, the Underworld is a
maze of subway tunnels and sewers, festooned in the desiccated finery of many
cultures. Pipes of bone or intestine are wrapped in gaudy Christmas lights while
walls are plastered over with playbills for forgotten shows. It’s up to you to bring
the “local” element to the Underworld as presented here. Ratchet up the creepi-
ness; the Sin-Eaters may have a lot of commerce with the dead, but few of them
like spending time in the Underworld. Especially since the place is designed to
entice you into breaking the rules.
Character Goals
The krewe is on the right path, and aside from defeating the Lost Ministers’
guardians on the train, there’s not much else they can do to move things along
until the train reaches the station.
Actions
Breaking the L ock
The gate blocking the characters from entering the train station is locked with a
27
chain and padlock. The characters may destroy it if they cannot pick the lock. The
door itself has a Durability of 3, Size of 5 and a Structure of 8, while the chain
has a Durability of 2 and a Structure of 5. The lock itself is the easiest target,
with a Durability of 2 and a Structure of 2. The characters definitely feel deathly
energies emanating from below; Uriah’s not leading them astray.
 Through the Ebon Gate
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Larceny + Equipment
Action: Extended (5 successes required; one roll represents one turn of
work).
Hindrances: Lack of tools (-3), darkness (-3), someone approaching (-2)
Help: Prybar (+1), basic lockpicks (+1), lockpick gun (+2)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Not only has the character failed to make any progress with
the lock, a mishap causes him to break one or more tools. Any previous successes
earned are lost. He may start again from scratch.
Failure: The character makes no headway against the lock.
Success: The character makes progress toward picking the lock.
Exceptional Success: The character has successfully picked the lock.

Knocking a Guardian Free

The guardians are swarming around the outside of the train, trying to crawl in
the windows and the doors. The characters need to fight the ones that actually
make it in normally, but they can knock the guardians crawling along the windows
free of the car, taking them out of the fight.
Dice Pool: Strength + Brawl (target is 3 successes)
Action: Extended. Each roll is one attack.
Hindrances: The guardian is already halfway through the window (-2), the
guardian is on the roof (-3)
Help: The guardian is trying to move from the side of the car to the back or
front (+2)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character slams into the window, jolted by the moving
train, taking 1 point of bashing damage.
Failure: The character misses the guardian.
Success: The character successfully damages the guardian, and loosens its
hold on the train.
Exceptional Success: The guardian falls from the train, howling in pain.

Consequences
This scene moves directly into “the Lost Minister.” If the characters made it
through the train ride in good shape, they shouldn’t have any problems with the
two guardians outside the chapel in the next scene. If there are any casualties, the
characters will have more difficulty when they confront the Lost Minister.

28

The L ost
M inister
Mental •• Physical •••• Social —
Overview
The characters confront the Lost Minister in his place of power, a bone
and stone chapel deep in the Underworld. Uriah is the first target of his
displeasure as the scene devolves into combat almost immediately.
Description
The train finally comes to a halt. You don’t see any sign of the creatures that were
so recently attacking, aside from the spectral bodies on the floor. The passengers
of the train remain in their seats, still looking forward. They never moved, even
during the height of the fight.
You step off the train onto a platform that recedes from the car even as you
walk. Behind you, the train continues its journey with a scraping rattle.
This is a good place to throw in a temptation. If for example, the Old
Laws in the local Underworld forbids drinking the water or eating the
food of the dead, you could present some that the characters know will
restore their Plasm or act as salve for their wounds. Or if the living are
forbidden from addressing the dead, forget Uriah’s confidence in his
directions and let the characters get lost in the shifting tunnels of the
depths, then present them with a shade who knows the way.
Remember always that nothing happens in the Underworld without a
price. The Kerberoi rise to punish transgressors and rarely leave a krewe
unscathed. The guardians themselves vary based on the domain, and
should be designed with your setting in mind. See pp. 250-255 in Geist:
the Sin-Eaters for a few examples.
The tunnels switch and turn and fold back upon themselves, but Uriah seems
to know the way. Up ahead, you see a chapel, carved out of the rocks themselves.
It has all the grandeur of a gothic cathedral, but on a smaller scale. In front of
the chapel, two specters stand guard.
“You are not welcome here,” the bigger one says, his glittering eyes seeping with
dark effluent.
The guardians will not allow the krewe to pass without a fight. Given
the obstacles the characters have already faced, the combat will likely go
pretty quickly.
The chapel is an ossuary, built from bones picked clean of even the memory of
flesh. Dark iron wraps around the bone, here and there, to hold it together. Di-
Through the Ebon Gate
aphanous red drapes hang along the walls, the only color in the room. The altar dominates
the room, a gigantic rendering of the virginal mother constructed out of a vast amalgam of
bone, holding a Christ-child the size of a full-grown human being. The ceiling is reminiscent
of the Sistine Chapel, but constructed of skeletons, sunk into the stone of the dome. Angels
with wings formed of arm and leg bones stand guard at regular intervals along the walls.
Their hollow-orbed sockets stare at you as you approach the altar.
The angels are nothing more than statues. As far as the krewe can tell, nothing
in the Ossuary is anything more than art. There’s not even any sign of the Lost
Minister: the place could be abandoned, or even a trap.
You feel the shifting warp of the Underworld shudder through everything. The room
shifts with the metamorphosis of this untrustworthy land. Behind you, the huge double
doors rearrange themselves, turning into a mural of Thomas investigating the yellowed
ribcage of a skeletal Christ. The angels also rearrange, losing their guardian stance to take
on the aspect of the avenger, their long bone spears held aloft.
“Amazing, aren’t they?” a stocky ghost says from the altar. The long fingers of his left
hand brush the pulpit as he steps down. “Every day is unpredictable here. What new
story will God teach us?” He points to the mural of Thomas in the back of the room and
turns simmering eyes on Uriah. “Uriah, you know the story of doubting Thomas, yes? He
could not accept that Jesus Christ had returned from the dead after his descent into the
Underworld. He required physical proof of the Lord’s power before he would believe. And
now, you bring these people to me, with their sins riding them like horses. Shall I show
you my power? Will you then believe?”
Storyteller Goals
This is it. Your goal here is simply to make a big, badass climax for the players
to enjoy. The Lost Minister is a formidable foe, but you can feel free to tweak
his abilities up or down the power gamut depending on the capabilities of your
troupe’s characters.
Character Goals
The troupe is aiming to stop the Lost Minister, survive and perhaps ensure Uriah’s
survival, not necessarily in that order. If this is a one-shot, don’t be surprised if
a character decides to sacrifice himself in order to go out in a blaze of glory and
save the day.
Actions
The Lost Minister may use his manifestations to manipulate any of the skeletal
29
statues in the room. His first action will be to cause of one of the angels to throw
a spear at Uriah. The chapel actually rearranges itself to mirror his mood, so you
can use it to mirror his current status. If he is close to defeat, the skeletons may
start to crack and fall apart. If he has the upper hand, the skeletons may rearrange
into triumphant poses. He must use his manifestations to enact changes that
would actually mechanically affect the outcome of the game (for example, to cause

damage to a character or create cover for himself), but the dynamism of
the shifting ossuary can be used to add dramatic flavor to the scene and
create a more cinematic climax for the players.
Conclusion
This is the end of this particular story, but that doesn’t mean its effects
can’t be felt rippling through your setting if you continue the chronicle.
You can allow the krewe to make their way back to the living world with
a minimum of fuss, or you can dramatize their bruised and bloody escape
from the Underworld, weary from their confrontation.
A
ftermath
If the characters stop the Minister, there may still be other deceived cultists
out there with “duties” assigned to them before the krewe became involved.
If the characters fail to stop him, the Minister takes a more direct hand in
growing the cult and turning them into his personal servants and vessels.
Even without Uriah leading the local Seekers, they’ve reached critical mass.
It’s completely possible that various members will spread the gospel and
create their own schismatic factions within the cult. Seeds planted in the
fertile soil of faith are not so easily rooted up. Uriah’s legacy, twisted by
the Lost Minister, has the potential to vex the krewe for quite a while.
If Uriah died, he is the only member of the cult to actually have the po-
tential to attract a geist and become a Sin-Eater himself. If you prefer, he
may become a powerful antagonist or even a useful ally, depending on
his treatment at the characters’ hands and the needs of your story. If the
Through the Ebon Gate
Lost Minister was not destroyed, he will continue to look for ways of escaping
the Underworld, and he won’t forget the krewe when he finally does. His agents
may harry the characters and make their existence more difficult than it already
is, and he will cultivate new branches of the Glorious Church of the Unified
Spirit. He’s quite fond of what Uriah gave him to play with.
E
xperience
Through the Ebon Gate can take anywhere from one to five chapters to complete,
depending on how thoroughly the characters investigate the Seekers and how long
you choose to draw out or compress the various encounters with the Minister’s
minions (unsuspecting or otherwise). At the end of each session, players should
be rewarded an experience point simply for participating in the adventure. In
addition, see p. 216 of the World of Darkness Rulebook for other possible in-
game reasons to dole out more experience to those players who earn them.
When the adventure is complete, you may consider giving more experience
based on the following levels of participation and success:
+1 Survival. The Minister is a dangerous foe. Some characters may not make it
out of the Underworld in one piece. Returning intact is definitely an experience.
+1 Confronting Temptation. The Seekers are a source of incredible temptation
to the right Sin-Eater. Those characters who felt that temptation and resisted – or
failed to resist, but later experienced a change of heart and grew because of it
while remaining true to their characters – deserve a point of experience.
+1 Salvation. Uriah is not a bad soul. He has been misled and had his mis-
understandings twisted into an insidious, terrible thing. If the characters save
him despite his creation, and give him the chance to redeem himself, they might
learn something.
30
 SCENE: The Carnival 11 SCENE: The Train 13

mental ­ •­• physical —­ social •••

­
mental­ ••• physical •••­ social • ­

HINDRANCES HEL P Other HINDRANCES HEL P Other

Standing at the line -1 None None A Disappointed Girl: A Disappointed Girl: None
Running for their lives -2 Scanning Crowd +1
Bad eyesight -2
Saving an Innocent: Saving an Innocent:

Drunk -2 Inappropriate shoes -2 Sneakers or hiking boots +1

Run: Run:
Inappropriate shoes -2 Sneakers or hiking boots +1

STs Set the mood, immerse the players. STs Shock the characters. Create a sense of danger.

PCs Get into character, work out their relationship. PCs Survive. Help others survive.

SCENE: In the Aftermath 15 SCENE: Turning the Stones 18

mental ­ •­•• physical ••­ social •••

HINDRANCES
Performing Triage:
Lack of Tools -2, distracted
by noise -1
Recognizing the Sigil:
Obscured by soot and
smoke -1
­ mental­ •­
•• physical —­ social •••
­
HEL P Other HINDRANCES HEL P Other
Questioning Mateo: None Hitting Up Contacts: Hitting Up Contacts: None
Soothing +1 Frequent/recent requests Gift +1, bribe +1, favor
-1/-2, obscure info -2/-3 owed +1/+3
Performing Triage:
Field kit +1 Researching Online: Researching Online:
Unusual topic -1, proxied Broadband connection +1
Recognizing the Sigil: connection -2
Fluent in Old Tongue +2

STs Provide preliminary clues. Get characters hooked. STs Provide the characters with clues.

PCs Help survivors and casualties alike. Question Mateo. PCs Use their resources to find information.
 SCENE: The Second Soul 20 SCENE: Marci’s Sacrifice 21

mental ­ •­• physical —­ social — ­

mental­ ••• physical •• social •••
­
HINDRANCES HEL P Other HINDRANCES HEL P Other
Trying to be subtle -2 Unrestricted access +2 None Assessing the Assessing the None
Explosives: Explosives:
Marci conceals them -2 Clear look +1

Negotiating: Negotiating:
Aggressive -2 Evoke Mateo +1

STs Humanize Marci, give characters clues. STs Create suspense/tension.

PCs Search for info leading to Marci and the church. PCs Save Marci/innocents, learn more about the cult.

SCENE: The Minister Says “Hi.” 23 SCENE: Tea With the Enemy 25

mental ­ •­• physical ••­• social • ­ mental­ •­

•• physical ••­ social •••
­
HINDRANCES HEL P Other HINDRANCES HEL P Other
None None None Aggressive Negotiator -1 Necromancer/Advocate None
+1

STs Create a dramatic fight; give characters time to shine. STs Unsettle the characters, tempt them with worship.

PCs Win or escape. PCs Convince Uriah to lead them to the Lost Minister.
 SCENE: On the 815 27

mental ­ •­•• physical •••­ social • ­

HINDRANCES HEL P Other

Breaking the Lock: Breaking the Lock: None

Name: Mateo Virtue: Justice

Lack of tools -3, Prybar +1, basic lockpicks
darkness -3, someone +1, lockpick gun +2
approaching -2

Knocking a Concept: Vice: Sloth
Knocking a Guardian Free:
Guardian Free: Guardian is trying to move
Guardian halfway in the from side to the back or
window -2, Guardian is on front +2
the roof -3
Power OOOOOOOOOO Finesse OOOOOOOOOO Resistance OOOOOOOOOO

Skills Numina Dice Pool Corpus

_________________ OOOOO Clairvoyance
________________ 3
________ OOOOOOOOOOOO
STs Create a sense of tension, evoke the strangeness of the Underworld. _________________ OOOOO Ghost Speech
________________ 3
________
_________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ OOOOOOOOOOOO
PCs Keep the guardians from boarding until they reach the Lost Minister. _________________ OOOOO ________________ ________
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
________________
________________
________
________
Willpower
_________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ OOOOOOOOOO
_________________ OOOOO ________________ ________
_________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ OOOOOOOOOO
SCENE: The Lost Minister 29 _________________ OOOOO ________________ ________

mental ­ •­• physical ••­•• social — ­

_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
________________
________________
________
________
Essence
_________________ OOOOO
HINDRANCES HEL P Other
None None None
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Influence
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 6
Morality__________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Aspect___________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Rank_____________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 5
Size______________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 13 (species factor 10)
Speed___________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 2
Defense__________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 3
Initiative Mod_ ____________

Notes:

STs Make a big, badass climax.

PCs Stop the Lost Minister.

Name: The Lost Minister Virtue: Faith Name: The Lost Minister’s Guardians Virtue: Fortitude
Concept: Vice: Pride Concept: Vice: Wrath

Power OOOOOOOOOO Finesse OOOOOOOOOO Resistance OOOOOOOOOO Power OOOOOOOOOO Finesse OOOOOOOOOO Resistance OOOOOOOOOO

Skills Numina Dice Pool Corpus Skills Numina Dice Pool Corpus
_________________ OOOOO Ghost Sign
________________ 9
________ OOOOOOOOOOOO _________________ OOOOO Ghost Sign
________________ 7
________ OOOOOOOOOOOO
_________________ OOOOO Ghost Speech
________________ 9
________ _________________ OOOOO ________________
Magnetic Disruption ________
_________________ OOOOO Phantasm
________________ 9
________ OOOOOOOOOOOO _________________ OOOOO Telekinesis
________________ 7
________ OOOOOOOOOOOO
_________________ OOOOO Telekinesis
________________ 9
________ _________________ OOOOO Terrify
________________ 7
________
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Terrify
________________
________________
9
________
________
Willpower _________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
________________
________________
________
________
Willpower
_________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ OOOOOOOOOO _________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ OOOOOOOOOO
_________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ _________________ OOOOO ________________ ________
_________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ OOOOOOOOOO _________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ OOOOOOOOOO
_________________ OOOOO ________________ ________ _________________ OOOOO ________________ ________
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
________________
________________
________
________
Essence _________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
________________
________________
________
________
Essence
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Influence _________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Influence
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 3
Morality__________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 4
Morality__________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Aspect___________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Aspect___________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Rank_____________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Rank_____________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 5
Size______________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 5
Size______________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 19 (species factor 10)
Speed___________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 17 (species factor 10)
Speed___________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 5
Defense__________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 4
Defense__________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 9
Initiative Mod_ ____________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO 7
Initiative Mod_ ____________

Notes: Notes:
Name: Marci Palmer Virtue: Hope Archetype: Name: Uriah Long Virtue: Faith Archetype:
Concept: Indie Girl Vice: Envy Threshold: Concept: Soft-Spoken Vice: lust Threshold:
Grieving
Cult Leader

Intelligence OOOOO Strength OOOOO Presence OOOOO Intelligence OOOOO Strength OOOOO Presence OOOOO
Wits OOOOO Dexterity OOOOO Manipulation OOOOO Wits OOOOO Dexterity OOOOO Manipulation OOOOO
Resolve OOOOO Stamina OOOOO Composure OOOOO Resolve OOOOO Stamina OOOOO Composure OOOOO

Skills Merits Health Skills Merits Health

Academics
_________________
(english) OOOOO Allies
_________________
(Seekers) OOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO Academics
_________________
(religion) OOOOO Allies
_________________
(Seekers) OOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
Computer
_________________ OOOOO Contacts
_________________
(Academic) OOOOO Crafts
_________________ OOOOO Inspiring
_________________ OOOOO
Occult
_________________ OOOOO
Politics
_________________ OOOOO
Resources
_________________ OOOOO
Status
_________________
(Seekers) OOOOO
Willpower Occult
_________________
(ghosts)
Athletics
_________________ OOOOO
OOOOO Mentor
_________________
Status
(Lost Minister)
_________________
(Seekers)
OOOOO
OOOOO
Willpower
Athletics
_________________ OOOOO Status
_________________
(University) OOOOO OOOOOOOOOO Larceny
_________________ OOOOO _________________
Permanent Death Sight OOOOO OOOOOOOOOO
Firearms
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Stealth
_________________ OOOOO Gateseeker
_________________ OOOOO
Weaponry
_________________ OOOOO
Empathy
_________________ OOOOO
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Plasm Survival
_________________ OOOOO
Weaponry
_________________ OOOOO
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Plasm
Expression
_________________
(novelist) OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Animal Ken
_________________ OOOOO
_________________ OOOOO
Persuasion
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Empathy
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO
Socialize
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Plasm per turn
Expression
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Plasm per turn

Streetwise
_________________ OOOOO
_________________ OOOOO
_________________
_________________ OOOOO
Manifestations
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
OOOOO
Psyche _________________
(conviction)
Persuasion
_________________
OOOOO _________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Psyche
OOOOOOOOOO Subterfuge
_________________ OOOOO
Manifestations OOOOOOOOOO
OOOOO
Flaws _________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO _________________ OOOOO
Flaws
OOOOO _________________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________
OOOOO _________________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________
OOOOO _________________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________
OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO
OOOOO Keys_____________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Keys_____________________
OOOOO _________________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________
OOOOO _________________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________
OOOOO _________________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________
OOOOO _________________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________

Notes: Marci has recently contracted the 6

Morality__________________
irrationality derangement Size__5____________________
(World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 99). 9
Speed___________________
2
Defense__________________
4
Initiative Mod_ ____________
Armor____________________
Notes: Uriah suffers from the depression 5
Morality__________________
derangement Size__5____________________
(World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 97). 10
Speed___________________
3
Defense__________________
6
Initiative Mod_ ____________
Armor____________________
 abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcd

The Glorious Church

j of the Unified Spirit j
Name: Black Gate Virtue: Faith Archetype: Name: Virtue: Archetype:
Seeker of the abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcd
This is not all there is.
Concept: Cultist Vice: Envy Threshold: Concept:
You know Vice:
it as well as I do, you feel it in your bones. There isThreshold:
more to this world,
but we cannot see it. We are not allowed. Things tickle the edges of your con-
sciousness every day. That movement in the corner of your eye. The light you
know you turned off.
Intelligence OOOOO Strength OOOOO Presence OOOOO We areIntelligence
told by scienceOOOOO
that thereStrength
is no afterlife. OOOOO
So-calledPresence
“rational thought” OOOOO
Wits OOOOO Dexterity OOOOO Manipulation OOOOO tells usWits
that spirits do not OOOOO
exist. ButDexterity
I say that whenOOOOO
you see Manipulation
and feel something, OOOOO
Resolve OOOOO Stamina OOOOO Composure OOOOO it mustResolve
exist. We have allOOOOO Stamina
seen things that we cannot OOOOO
explainComposure
through the lensOOOOO of
science. It is no longer enough to explain it away as coincidence or chance. I am
Skills Merits Health Skills Merits
here to tell you that it is neither of those things. Your loved ones, my loved ones,
they remain on this earth even after they have been expelled from their physical,
Health
Academics
_________________ OOOOO Allies
_________________
(Seekers) OOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO O O O O O O O O O O O O
fleshy bodies.
Computer
_________________ OOOOO Contacts
_________________
(Choose 1) OOOOO Though_________________
they have beenOOOOO
freed from _________________ OOOOO
the confines of the flesh, they still long to care
Crafts
_________________
Occult
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Resources
_________________
Status
_________________
(Seekers)
OOOOO
OOOOO
Willpower _________________
for us, to
to them_________________
OOOOO
teach us the things
that they remainOOOOO
close to us
_________________
they have learned on the
_________________
instead of moving
OOOOO
Willpower
other side. It is so important
OOOOO on to their final rewards.
Athletics
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO OOOOOOOOOO And yet, _________________ OOOOOto_________________
so many of us choose ignore them. So many OOOOO OOOOO
of us pretend O Othey
that OOO
Brawl
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________
don’t exist. Can you go on OOOOO
like this_________________
if there’s even aOOOOO
chance that your loved ones
Firearms
_________________
Weaponry
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
Plasm Do Not
_________________
are trying to help you? OOOOO _________________ OOOOO
_________________ OOOOO We
Waste Their Sacrifice! _________________
Plasm
OOOOOto their teachings. We
must open ourselves
Empathy
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________
here at the Glorious Church OOOOO _________________
of the Unified Spirit wantOOOOO
to help you to open yourself
Expression
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________
to the unification OOOOO
of the spirit _________________
possible, OOOOO
so you can give voice to your loved ones
Intimidation
_________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO Plasm per turn
and learn_________________
the lessons theyOOOOO
want to _________________
teach you. Reach OOOOO
across the Plasm per turn
divide between
Persuasion
_________________
Subterfuge
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO
_________________ OOOOO
Psyche life and_________________
death and tell them
_________________
things they
OOOOO
never got to OOOOO
all the_________________
show you.
things you never OOOOO
Psyche
got to say, and learn all the

_________________ OOOOO
Manifestations
_________________
_________________
OOOOO
OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
_________________ OOOOO _________________
Notes: Pick three specialties as needed.
OOOOOOOOOO _________________
The Shining Ones AdoreOOOOO
Manifestations
Us. Your loved ones have become O Oshining
O O O Olights,
OOOO
OOOOO
Flaws leading_________________
us forward to a OOOOO
_________________
death. They
world where there are no boundaries between life and
want to tearOOOOO
down the _________________
walls and eradicateOOOOO
Flaws
illness and hatred. Sick-
OOOOO _________________________ ness and _________________
violence will noOOOOO _________________
longer matter OOOOO
when the line between_________________________
them and us has
OOOOO _________________________ _________________
been wiped away. OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________
OOOOO _________________________ Angels_________________
are Among Us.OOOOO The lucky _________________
ones who haveOOOOO _________________________
unified their spirit with one
OOOOO _________________
of the shining OOOOO
ones are out _________________
there. They OOOOO
are angels; messengers from beyond sent
OOOOO Keys_____________________ to teach_________________
us how to achieve OOOOO
the same _________________
unification! Only OOOOO
once we Keys_____________________
become like them
OOOOO _________________________ can we_________________ OOOOO _________________
truly shepherd humanity onto the next step OOOOO _________________________
of evolution. Together, the
OOOOO _________________________ members _________________
of the GloriousOOOOO
Church _________________
of the Unified SpiritOOOOO _________________________
will find them and learn
OOOOO _________________________ _________________ OOOOO _________________ OOOOO _________________________
from them.
OOOOO _________________________ _________________
Act Today! OOOOOChurch
Join the Glorious _________________ OOOOO
of the Unified _________________________
Spirit and learn how much
of our world you’re really missing. Reach out with confident hands to throw aside
7
Morality__________________ Notes:
the shackles of life without success. Gain the edge you need toMorality__________________
compete in today’s
Size__5____________________ economy by learning the secrets of those who came before! Size______________________
10
Speed___________________ Speed___________________
2
Defense__________________ Defense__________________
4
Initiative Mod_ ____________
Armor____________________
x N x
Initiative Mod_ ____________
Armor____________________